Are you rethinking your bolt contract now?

[FutureTBoltOwner]

So now that verizon has confirmed tiered data plans, and it's all but officially going to happen in the summer, I wonder has this affected your thinking towards the way you wished to plan on purchasing your bolt?

I will admit my first plan of action was to purchase the bolt on a 1 year, at our guesstimated price of around $330 or so, but now that they have said they will move to tiered data this definitely makes me reconsider towards the 2 year option (as much as I would hate to do another 2 year contract, I will not spend anything over $40 a month for a phone for data, and would consider the 2 year in an attempt to lock in the $30 a month currently offered)

So how does this announcement affect your bolt plans?

 

[asianrage]

The news doesn't affect my decision, since I'm on the employee pricing anyway, which means I have to buy the phone at 2 year contract pricing. Not a big deal.

 

[roxy surf]

it only affects my decision to do a 1 year plan instead of a 2 year plan

EDIT: i meant to say i'm doing a 2 year instead of a 1 year

 

[upz3]

it only affects my decision to do a 1 year plan instead of a 2 year plan

Agreed... most knew that this was coming eventually. It will be interesting to see how they do it 3g vs 4g.

 

[alcoholics02]

I will still do a 2 year, but i wonder if they will keep the 3G unlimited and use that for awhile on the TB. They would have to run the 3G and 4G running for while. I will use WiFi most of the time anyway. :-[

 

[Cyber Warrior]

Doesn't affect my decision... I figured the 4G data plan was going to be more money to begin with. When I found out it was the same price as the 3G plan a week ago I was amazed.. how could you go wrong. Why buy a 3G phone when 4G is the same price.... didn't make sense. Now that they have officially announced it will be swithcing to a tiered plan I'm right back to my original perception. Rumors were floating around for a month or two that Verizon would be switching to a tiered data plan. It will be nice if we can get locked in for another two year contract with the $30 unlimited without Verizon being able to switch it.

 

[launchpad]

I am on AT&T now and thinking about switching to Verizon for my first smart phone ever. The current pricing plan is nice since I really don't know how much web surfing i'll actually do and being unlimited at $30 is fine by me. If I do sign up for the 2 year contract Verizon can't change the pricing during my contract can they? If I sign up for w/e the 4g rate will be when the TB comes out I don't want a bait and switch job done on me.

 

[Edwill86]

oops! I wish I could re vote.

NO this does not change my plans!
I thought you meant if the new data plans go into effect b4 the tbolt comes out.

Im getting it on a 2 year anyway to get locked in to 30 unlimited.

 

[itsdollar]

I'm doing a 2year plan anyways. I use WIFI a lot and I visit 4g areas but do not live in one.

 

[muska180#AC]

I dont think see why it would affect your decision to buy on a 1 or 2 year contract. In the 1 year scenario you can keep your bolt past the 1 year and just not be on a contract you would still have a 30 dollar unlimited data plan. And if there is a phone out after that year that you can justify getting and enduring a tiered data plan than you would have that choice. While with a 2 year plan your stuck for 2 years without the option of getting a new phone.

 

[launchpad]

I dont think see why it would affect your decision to buy on a 1 or 2 year contract. In the 1 year scenario you can keep your bolt past the 1 year and just not be on a contract you would still have a 30 dollar unlimited data plan. And if there is a phone out after that year that you can justify getting and enduring a tiered data plan than you would have that choice. While with a 2 year plan your stuck for 2 years without the option of getting a new phone.

Are you saying that when the 1 year contract is up Verizon won't automatically switch us to the tiered pricing?

 

[muska180#AC]

Are you saying that when the 1 year contract is up Verizon won't automatically switch us to the tiered pricing?

That is exactly what I am saying. I use to work for Verizon as a sales rep and nothing changes when the contract expires until YOU make a change aka new plan, new phone, new feature....

People really do not need to panic about what will happen this summer because if they get the phone before the change they are locked in until they themselves change it by doing any of the things i mentioned above.

 

[potatolover1102]

Also I am sure they might make an exception like AT&T and let you keep it on getting a new phone.

 

[QuikSilver39]

That is exactly what I am saying. I use to work for Verizon as a sales rep and nothing changes when the contract expires until YOU make a change aka new plan, new phone, new feature....

People really do not need to panic about what will happen this summer because if they get the phone before the change they are locked in until they themselves change it by doing any of the things i mentioned above.

You do but speak the truth. I have an old skool plan on my Mi-Fi that is not available any more. I actually had it on an old PCMCIA card but when I upgraded after my two years to a Mi-Fi nothing changed. I was able to keep my unlimited data plan for $49.99 a month, which Verizon no long offers.

 

[FutureTBoltOwner]

the responses that they will continue to honor the plan after the contract has expired are encouraging, we can only hope they continue to do so when they change to tiered and that this does not affect their judgement otherwise they may pi$$ a lot of people off

 

[Forgetful]

Also I am sure they might make an exception like AT&T and let you keep it on getting a new phone.

This is what I'm thinking too. As long as we lock into the price and don't change/cancel the general plan we'll have the same data cost. Even if we upgrade to the Thunderbolt 2 next year.

 

[muska180#AC]

the responses that they will continue to honor the plan after the contract has expired are encouraging, we can only hope they continue to do so when they change to tiered and that this does not affect their judgement otherwise they may pi$$ a lot of people off

Trust me they wont piss anyone off by making you switch to tiered plans unless you yourself execute an act that will result in your data plan being changed. Its not worth the extreme headache of switching everyone the day they implement the new plans, sooner or later you'll get the new plan on your own.

 

[Cyber Warrior]

That is exactly what I am saying. I use to work for Verizon as a sales rep and nothing changes when the contract expires until YOU make a change aka new plan, new phone, new feature....

People really do not need to panic about what will happen this summer because if they get the phone before the change they are locked in until they themselves change it by doing any of the things i mentioned above.

What about switching to a new phone without an upgrade... bought at full price. Say if I wanted to switch the TB to a Bionic in a few months. Does that affect the contract?

 

[Forgetful]

But what the heck does this comment mean?? It seems that there will be changes in data plans starting with the release of the Bolt?

* “As we progress down the LTE range and bring more devices to the table—we will be launching the HTC Thunderbolt very shortly here—that will give you a flavor of what our tiered pricing structure will look like going forward.”
* “LTE also gives us the capability to price very differently than we priced before. Not just on consumption, but also possibly on speed differentiation. So we are still working through those models. Don’t know if we will do something there yet, but wireless is still working through those and that will come out with the HTC launch.”

 

[FutureTBoltOwner]

But what the heck does this comment mean?? It seems that there will be changes in data plans starting with the release of the Bolt?

* ?As we progress down the LTE range and bring more devices to the table?we will be launching the HTC Thunderbolt very shortly here?that will give you a flavor of what our tiered pricing structure will look like going forward.?
* ?LTE also gives us the capability to price very differently than we priced before. Not just on consumption, but also possibly on speed differentiation. So we are still working through those models. Don?t know if we will do something there yet, but wireless is still working through those and that will come out with the HTC launch.?

that is the one truly perplexing thing in this whole conversation, on one hand they say summer but on the other they say what you highlighted. hopefully it does not mean what I fear, which is tiered launched with bolt and other 4G devices while 3G is allowed to remain at $30 unlimited til summer, than after that all both 4G and 3G will be tiered, after all the article did mention they attribute this move to the iphone did they not? this is what leads to my thinking that it may be for 4G phones only to "get that taste of it"

*holds breath hoping that I'm wrong*