Should I give up unlimited data on Verizon?

[kkhanmd]

I have two phone lines, my wife has unlimited, while I have 4 GB. Total cost is around 190.
If I move to the new plans I will get 20 gigs of data between the two of us. and our cost will go down to by 60 dollars a month, should I do it and lose my unlimited?
Since my phone bill is also paid by the company having shared data would mean, I would save 50 dollars of unlimited data cost that I am currently paying from my pocket.
Should I do it, my only fear is what if in 5-10 years, my data goes up so much that I am paying overage cost on it for eg watching netflix on HD on a 6 hour road trip and then coming back.
Currently I average around 9-10 Gigs a month (70% kids watching netflix), last month was 15 gigs
Pros for giving up unlimited are 1) Cheaper 2) paid my company 3) hotspot 4) I can add phones or devices for my kids

 

[Almeuit]

re:

It really depends. Data usage is only going to keep going up as more and more things are internet related. The cost savings are definitely nice but if you start using more data it will cost more in the end versus unlimited.

 

[kkhanmd]

re:

so hard to decide esp now w netflix letting you stream at high quality

 

[RHChan84]

re:

Really up to you and your usage. I gave up unlimited data and got the LG G3 for $100 instead of full price back when it first came out but I also save $40/month by going to a 20GB data. I hit that randomly when I wanted to see how high I would go but I average 15GB/month and my wife barely touches 2 GB. Then a month or two later, they had a promo for double data and now we have 40 but we rarely get near 20GB.

 

[kkhanmd]

re:

Really up to you and your usage. I gave up unlimited data and got the LG G3 for $100 instead of full price back when it first came out but I also save $40/month by going to a 20GB data. I hit that randomly when I wanted to see how high I would go but I average 15GB/month and my wife barely touches 2 GB. Then a month or two later, they had a promo for double data and now we have 40 but we rarely get near 20GB.

what was the promo for 40 gigs?

 

[dpham00]

re:

what was the promo for 40 gigs?

Double data for life promotion. Basically you got 40 gb for the cost of 20gb,30gb for the cost of 15gb,etc.

 

[RHChan84]

re:

Double data for life promotion. Basically you got 40 gb for the cost of 20gb,30gb for the cost of 15gb,etc.

This.

It was in November 2014 I believe. Whatever year the LG G3 came out.

 

[dpham00]

re:

I have two phone lines, my wife has unlimited, while I have 4 GB. Total cost is around 190.
If I move to the new plans I will get 20 gigs of data between the two of us. and our cost will go down to by 60 dollars a month, should I do it and lose my unlimited?
Since my phone bill is also paid by the company having shared data would mean, I would save 50 dollars of unlimited data cost that I am currently paying from my pocket.
Should I do it, my only fear is what if in 5-10 years, my data goes up so much that I am paying overage cost on it for eg watching netflix on HD on a 6 hour road trip and then coming back.
Currently I average around 9-10 Gigs a month (70% kids watching netflix), last month was 15 gigs
Pros for giving up unlimited are 1) Cheaper 2) paid my company 3) hotspot 4) I can add phones or devices for my kids

You can get unlimited hotspot by simply adding the 4g hotspot to your account. This 4g hotspot is the only officially supported hotspot by any major carrier (albeit on a legacy plan) that is fully unlimited and not throttled or network optimized.

Something to keep in mind when tethering, especially if you want the best quality, if tethered to a 4k device then netflix can use up to 7gb/hour. You can of course choose to go down to fHD or hd or sd to use less.

Data usage is on a massive upward trend so I wouldn't give up unlimited data on Verizon unless I had no other choice. However if you are sure that you can live with xx data a month then you can move to a tiered data plan. Just keep in mind that it is a one way street. You can't get unlimited back so be 100% sure.


With regards to adding devices, assuming that you are on the nationwide family plan then you can have up to 5 lines on that plan.

 

[Almeuit]

re:

Just FYI. No talks about bypassing paid tethering restrictions - http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...tethering-foxfi-pdanet-etc-carrier-plans.html. Add-Ons (like the unlimited mobile hotspot for unlimited Verizon plans is okay).

 

[UDPGuy]

re:

Just FYI. No talks about bypassing paid tethering restrictions - http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...tethering-foxfi-pdanet-etc-carrier-plans.html. Add-Ons (like the unlimited mobile hotspot for unlimited Verizon plans is okay).

Why is this? I get it on the other carriers, but for Verizon it has to be allowed because of their 700mhz restrictions. So it's not in any way illegal as on other carriers.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[kkhanmd]

re:

Thanks everybody for help, I have decided to keep the unlimited for another 6 months and re evaluate in future.

 

[Almeuit]

re:

Why is this? I get it on the other carriers, but for Verizon it has to be allowed because of their 700mhz restrictions. So it's not in any way illegal as on other carriers.

Posted via the Android Central App

If you would like to discuss the matter further please send a PM to our Mod Team Leader (Assassin Droid - http://forums.androidcentral.com/members/assassin-droid-698221/).

Thanks!

 

[Aquila]

Re:

Why is this? I get it on the other carriers, but for Verizon it has to be allowed because of their 700mhz restrictions. So it's not in any way illegal as on other carriers.

Posted via the Android Central App

Verizon has to allow the app to be installed unless they can establish a reason that the app compromises security or several other exemptions. And the app does have some valid uses other than masking tethering. They do not have to allow people to steal service and using the app to bypass their paid tethering plan on an unlimited data plan account is against the terms of service.

 

[UDPGuy]

Re:

Verizon has to allow the app to be installed unless they can establish a reason that the app compromises security or several other exemptions. And the app does have some valid uses other than masking tethering. They do not have to allow people to steal service and using the app to bypass their paid tethering plan on an unlimited data plan account is against the terms of service.

When they tried to stop people from using the specific apps, the FCC said they could not stop people from using third party apps to tether as it violates the terms. I'm not trying to be a rebel, so please don't take it that way. This is just from my personal research and working for Verizon.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Aquila]

Re:

When they tried to stop people from using the specific apps, the FCC said they could not stop people from using third party apps to tether as it violates the terms. I'm not trying to be a rebel, so please don't take it that way. This is just from my personal research and working for Verizon.

Posted via the Android Central App

You're absolutely right that the direction from the FCC was clear, but there's a nuance. They cannot stop you from using the app... but this means they simply can't systematically prevent the usage of the app on your phone without having an exempted cause. However, they can cancel your service or compel you to switch to a plan for which that usage would not be a violation of their TOS and use any other number of remedies described in their policies.

Keep in mind that the only folks this applies to are users who are not on a tiered data plan, so we're basically talking about users with unlimited data. Other than a few very specific plans, mostly corporate plans, there are very few users with unlimited data who have not gone out of their way to retain unlimited data despite knowledge that Verizon was not only not offering that plan, but actively moving people away from that plan for any number of plan changes. Full disclosure, I'm one of those users - and I'm very familiar with the methods used for that and that some of those methods were valid uses of Verizon's upgrade policies and some were definitively not. We can't complain, with much validity when those efforts fail - and it is important to acknowledge that this paid tethering plan applies to only the smallest minority of Verizon customers - and that all of those users are already getting an exceptional deal way beyond anything Verizon currently offers to any other customers.

So when Verizon says, "hey, we're not joking, if we catch you doing this we can just change your data plan to a 2GB tiered plan and/or cancel your service and/or litigate, depending on the severity of the situation" (paraphrasing) - that's something we might want to pay attention to. They've established their right to charge as they will for their goods and services and beyond that, we've agreed to those prices and those terms. So we look at this in the exact same way that one would when users are asking for help to get in app purchases for free or download and activate paid APK's without paying the developers.

This got too long ... so story short: What you do with your devices and your accounts with whomever is up to you and between you and them and it's none of my business at all. I can make a recommendation and talk things through, but it's always up to you. But what we're able to discuss in the forums falls into a much broader idea that has to uphold your ability to seek information and the ability of developers and companies to feel secure that we're not helping people steal their products and services. Sometimes that's a fine line to figure out, and most of us aren't lawyers, and so I hope it's clear where we landed on this one.