That's been the case per the finer points of the contract. Its true that they could in fact decide tomorrow that they would switch and not tell you its no longer available. They could even tell existing customers that their unlimited packages no longer apply and they are now tiered, but that would be VERY risky. If they did that, they would almost certainly face a class-action lawsuit, as directly or indirectly, they have led their customers to believe that their plans are for the duration of their contract, and that the ability to change them is a benefit to suit the consumer, rather than because the plans themselves are NOT actually locked in.
The worst they could really do would be to tell everyone they were going to have to switch to tiered plans, but give them the option to leave with their devices and no ETF. That wouldn't be a wise move, however, considering they heavily subsidize the price of the devices in exchange for getting you to sign the contracts, and they would lose alot of contracts that were just a few months old, before they had made their money back from subsidizing the phone. Not to mention the general loss of customers, and ability for all the other carriers to exploit that and draw more customers away would not be a wise move.
The smart move, and what they almost certainly are going to do, is to announce several hot new devices (Droid 3, GS2, and the Bionic) at the same time they announce tiered pricing. Keep all the current contracts through grandfathering, while getting many to re-sign, as well as new customers, from finally offering all the sweet phones they've been holding back from us right after the plans hit. That way their contracted customer base goes way up, and they show an uptake in data right after tiered pricing hits. Granted it will be because of the devices, but it will appear to be related to the switch to tiered, as earnings reports often contain data about plans, but rarely devices. That way tiered data looks like a huge success to the shareholders because of the cost savings and uptake in contracts, rather than being something that pushes consumers away.
That was what I was saying seemed likely about a month ago, after thinking about everything for awhile. That's what made me change my mind and decide that there was no way Verizon would launch the Bionic right before tiered hit, which is why I went ahead and bought the Charge with no regrets or fear of the Bionic being announced right after.
Make sense to anyone else?
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