I was more looking at the referred to stipulations that were imposed by the FCC referred to in the linked article. If in bidding for the new 700Mhz space that they built they're LTE network in is there possibly a clause in there that would prevent them from their new limiting plans? I don't know all the legal mumbo jumbo or the FCC particulars. Was hoping someone that does understand all this stuff may have some insight on it.
For example they didn't want you to be able to move your data sim between devices and had to back down about it because of the agreement they made for the 700Mhz spectrum.
While FCC work is above my pay grade (i've only done comment letters at an internship), I doubt it unless the FCC themselves wanted to impose a high level cap to reduce strain in case it needs to be used for emergency--X amount of users at any given Y time. Past that, I'm not away of anything from the FCC stating that Verizon can't "divvy" up their allocable portion as they see fit.
IIRC, the 700mhz space is the D block; if so, congress has failed to auction it off (I believe twice at this point) and its main use was supposed to be emergency uses, so as to avoid another 9/11 network jam.
That being said, these contracts are so complex that I highly doubt this issue would not be covered. The update in your article sort of alludes to this b/c you're "technically" buy the sim card, and thus you're paying for the plan and space regardless of device. There's also an issue about grandfathering, which in actual, legal terms means that you have prior contractual rights that are still enforceable.
Further, I can't see the FCC giving an honest damn unless they thought they could squeeze more money out of VZW for it--which is probably what's happening, if anything. If it's the "failed to sell" D Block, they're reeling a bit b/c they thought it would sell immediately. Instead major carriers/markets basically gave them a giant bird and waited them out.