Greed takes another step forward, Verizon ditches unlimited data plan.

Verizon got rid of their unlimited data plan option.

Beginning Juy 7, Verizon smartphone customers will be able to choose from $30 for 2 gigabytes, $50 for 5 gigabytes or $80 for 10 gigabytes, with a $10-per-gigabyte overage charge.

Anyone who uses a smart phone as much as me knows that their cheapest data plan, $30 for 2 GB, is laughable. You could easily go over that in a long, boring car ride, and be forced to then pay $10 per GB.

Anyone who already has an unlimited data plan will be unaffected by this for the remainder of their contract (I believe), and will be allowed to keep their plan.

This is just another pathetic example of how greedy corporations are becoming. Why bother keeping your customers happy, when you can just blatantly rip them off knowing full well that they wont give a damn. People are becoming more apathetic, and they may huff and puff for a few minutes in the store, but they will cave and pay the new rates. People are lemmings.

Now that almost every major carrier has decided to drop their unlimited data plan option, we're going to have nobody to go to to get this option. It might as well be a monopoly, since just about every carrier seems to be working together in an effort to maximize profits and rip people off. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they were price fixing.

Read the article here

When they ditch the unlimited data, I'll ditch the smart plan. Corporate greed has gone far enough and I don't really need the extra features.

So basically, they're a lot like drug pushers.

First, they get everybody hooked on their gadgety smartphones by offering "unlimited data" (free samples), 4G speeds, TV anywhere, you-can-always-be-connected-24-7, and then all of a sudden....Oh, you want THAT MUCH data? Well, OK, but that's going to cost you...

I'm so glad I never hopped on the smartphone bandwagon.

That's why I prefer my ipod touch 4g to a smart phone. I get all the features of the phone, including calls and video chat through skype, but I don't have to pay an arm and a leg. Sure, I can only use the internet near wifi, but wifi is pretty much everywhere now. And I have some GREAT $0.99 games for car rides where I can't use the internet. So not having internet on car rides really isn't missed.

How is it greed?
Please define greed.

If they want to charge more, then don't use their service. This is still somewhat of a free market. They can choose the price. You can choose not to buy.

reply to post by Adyta


And people will cry, moan and groan about and keep on paying it, because they just gotta have the net, their life would come to a screeching halt without it. This is an instance where people can do something about it, cancel the accounts and when Verizon feels the pinch they will make adjustments.

This also shows how they trap you in these contracts with them, they make policy changes without regard and they know people will not say or do anything because they are locked into their contracts. Those contracts serve absolutely no purpose for the customer, it only benefits the carrier.

Originally posted by macman
How is it greed?
Please define greed.

If they want to charge more, then don't use their service. This is still somewhat of a free market. They can choose the price. You can choose not to buy.

When they make you pay more for the service plan in a year than the actual phone costs.. yeah that's greed.

Hey there Sexy

Thanks for the heads up on this one.

Agreed! bunch of greediness going on, and a sucker born every minute.
Don't succomb to this. If we quit paying, and learn to do WITHOUT for a while , they will hAVE to drop their prices.
Forget my getting a contract w/them. They can stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

reply to post by Ghost375


Equating the 2 makes no sense. If that is what they charge to make a profit, seeing that they are there to make money, then that is what you are asked to pay.
I say 'asked' because you are not forced to purchase their product.

Again. Please define greed.

reply to post by macman


The stuff is overpriced as it is, the technology is not that expensive to operate, that is the philosophy behind this sort of technology, to make things cheaper and reusable not more expensive, we are being played. The costs come from their own employees being inept and lacking proper training and/or they hire 3 people to do a 1 person job. These companies need to look within and they will see why their costs are so off base.

Originally posted by macman
How is it greed?
Please define greed.

If they want to charge more, then don't use their service. This is still somewhat of a free market. They can choose the price. You can choose not to buy.

It is greed because now, only Sprint offers this plan, and they will also get rid of it soon. For some people, data plans aren't a luxury but a necessity for work. Every phone company seems to be working together in an effort to make this the new norm. I seem to be a fan of analogys (maybe because I'm always trying to explain things to idiots) so I'll put it this way.

Say you plan on buying a new car from Ford (Verizon) for $15,000. You go to the dealership and find out their cheapest, bare-bones car is now $50,000. But now, you can't go to Nissan (T-Mobile) or Toyota (AT&T) , because THEIR cheapest car is now also $50,000. You can either buy the car at that absurd price, or go get a used car that only works 60% of the time (Walmart plan).

Back in the day, you used to have to pay BY THE MINUTE for internet usage. While I do agree that these big phone companies are greedy, filthy, pigs, its still better than it could be. Someone, one day will make billions of dollars when they find out that more people will flock to a great deal. Instead of taking a lot of money from a few people they should be taking a little money from a lot of people, but they might have to "work" too much then to keep all the clientel happy.

MOTF!

Originally posted by Skewed
reply to post by macman

 

The stuff is overpriced as it is, the technology is not that expensive to operate, that is the philosophy behind this sort of technology, to make things cheaper and reusable not more expensive, we are being played. The costs come from their own employees being inept and lacking proper training and/or they hire 3 people to do a 1 person job. These companies need to look within and they will see why their costs are so off base.

edit on 6-7-2011 by Skewed because: (no reason given)

Ah hah.
Ok, so the technology is not that expensive. Please google/research some of these items:
Edge & Core Routers
Layer 3 Switches
Soft Switch
Transport Nodes
OC-48
Then come back and let me know about it being not that expensive. Almost every major market in the US will have at least 1 of each. Not to mention the buy off that they had to give to those in the Fed Govt and FCC to get the old TV analog band for future use of the 4G network.


As for employees. Verizon is Union. As is ATT, Qwest and Sprint.
Most of the operations for Cricket and Boost are Non-Union.
Overhead for the Union based Telecom company is extraordinary. The work is as follows:
A circuit needs to get from point A to point E. Union shops will have a single position for each hop, from A to B, From B to C and so on. Their position/career is single minded and single action.
So yes, it is in a sense the fault of the employee.

But again, please someone define greed.

Originally posted by Adyta

Originally posted by macman
How is it greed?
Please define greed.

If they want to charge more, then don't use their service. This is still somewhat of a free market. They can choose the price. You can choose not to buy.

It is greed because now, only Sprint offers this plan, and they will also get rid of it soon. For some people, data plans aren't a luxury but a necessity for work. Every phone company seems to be working together in an effort to make this the new norm. I seem to be a fan of analogys (maybe because I'm always trying to explain things to idiots) so I'll put it this way.

Say you plan on buying a new car from Ford (Verizon) for $15,000. You go to the dealership and find out their cheapest, bare-bones car is now $50,000. But now, you can't go to Nissan (T-Mobile) or Toyota (AT&T) , because THEIR cheapest car is now also $50,000. You can either buy the car at that absurd price, or go get a used car that only works 60% of the time (Walmart plan).

edit on 7/6/2011 by Adyta because: (no reason given)

You still have a choice.
And greed has yet to be defined.
They are charging what is deemed to be profitable to the company.

Originally posted by macman
But again, please someone define greed.

If it will stop the record from skipping;

excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions.

Seems fitting. I would call this an excessive or rapacious desire for wealth.

Originally posted by macman


Ah hah.
Ok, so the technology is not that expensive. Please google/research some of these items:
Edge & Core Routers
Layer 3 Switches
Soft Switch
Transport Nodes
OC-48
Then come back and let me know about it being not that expensive. Almost every major market in the US will have at least 1 of each. Not to mention the buy off that they had to give to those in the Fed Govt and FCC to get the old TV analog band for future use of the 4G network.


As for employees. Verizon is Union. As is ATT, Qwest and Sprint.
Most of the operations for Cricket and Boost are Non-Union.
Overhead for the Union based Telecom company is extraordinary. The work is as follows:
A circuit needs to get from point A to point E. Union shops will have a single position for each hop, from A to B, From B to C and so on. Their position/career is single minded and single action.
So yes, it is in a sense the fault of the employee.

But again, please someone define greed.

I am fully aware of the costs to purchase, I have installed many of those items and operated them. I have been in this industry before switches and routers even came on the scene and there were cheap hubs or computers connected directly to each other.

Yes, the equipment is expensive and I still stand behind my statements earlier as all the manufacturers are guilty of inflating the prices for what ever reason. I admit, it is a cycle and when one company decides to screw another over, it spreads like a virus and it filters down to us. But, a good majority of parts and components that are used in creating this technology either evolved from some other component or has multiple uses, once the parts are created there is no need to necessarily recreate the wheel if the components have already been created, at the least a little reprogramming of the integrated circuit would suffice. As an example, the chip that maintains the memory for your car radios memory is more than likely the same type of chip that maintains the memory for your computers bios settings, simplistically speaking.

It is a given that when NEW technology comes along it would be more expensive, but after the R&D and the first few versions are released, the prices should come down, not go up.

You can blame all the iPhone users for this... I knew it was going to happen and predicted it.

Verizon was doing just fine with only the Android smart phones and others. I knew as soon as Verizon partnered up with Apple and allowed the use of iPhones with Verizon that things were going to go down hill for Verizon and it's customers. Sure enough, they are increasing the cost of data, and it's probably because iPhone users/phones use more data than anyone else... I knew this just from estimates, and I just now found a report that confirms that iPhones and their users use more data than anyone else.

news.consumerreports.org...

No wonder AT&T is having trouble keeping up with the data demands of iPhone users. Consumers using iPhones suck up almost twice as much data on their Apple devices as owners of most other smart phones. And a small minority of iFanatics are true data hogs, uploading and downloading up to three or more times data than the average iPhone owner.

On average, iPhone users consume 273 MBs of data per month. That compares with 54 MBs for consumer users of Blackberrys and 150 MBs for consumers who use other brands of smart phones, the Validas study found.

Thank you iPhone users for destroying Verizon and forcing them to increase data plan rates....

Originally posted by Adyta

Originally posted by macman
But again, please someone define greed.

If it will stop the record from skipping;

excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions.

Seems fitting. I would call this an excessive or rapacious desire for wealth.

And who defines what is excessive or rapacious for Verizon?
You surely don't.

Again, I can maybe see the argument in regards to say a national disaster and the item in question is for human survival. But, your basic needs are not dependent to Unlimited Data Plans.

reply to post by gift0fpr0phecy


Yes, people do not realize that the bandwidth is limited and the equipment can only handle so much. Thank you Apple, twitter and facebook for screwing everything up just so people can have instant gratification.

reply to post by Skewed


Ok, so please lets list some round numbers for cost. Costs applied to a single Main site.
Then lets look at POP sites, all within a single metro area.
Then costs to install and maintain.

You addressed briefly the equipment side, but left off at the personnel side.