Uh oh: Verizon Dropping Unlimited Data Plans Too?

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I have started looking into Sprint myself. Just look at their coverage map and find the city you are in. They do have alot of cities that are full 4g coverage now and if you dont fall into one of those categories you still can fall back on their 3g. Look at some of the features that are included in their plans. Shoot you can the something called the "EVERYTHING PLAN" and they do mean everything. For the family one you get all data all phone calls and all text message unlimited... I do mean all phone calls. and it does not matter if you are on a sprint tower or a verison/att tower. Its covered no matter where you are. They even allow data on different carriers towers but the amount is limited. But hey the other carriers are going to limit ya anyway. Just trying to tear my wife away from the idea of wanting the iphone 4.
 
[citation][nom]rmmil978[/nom]Please don't quote something about the Holocaust and make a reference to cell phone data plans. Seriously.[/citation]

The poem may be about WWII, but the sentiment is the same regardless of the circumstances. I don't think your neighbor has to be carted off by the Nazis for you to feel the need to speak up about any injustice being done to them. The point is, when do you feel the need to speak-up, and if you didn't speak up for your neighbor, do you honestly expect anyone to speak up for you? Remember when Time Warner and Comcast were rolling-out bandwidth cap limits in No-Where, Texas? Why do you think they do it there, because they know no one is going to speak up for some poor hicks down south. If they did that in a major Metro area, there'd be hell to pay. They can excuse away the fact that 80% of their customers don't need unlimited plans, but that just overlooks the 20% of customers that do need unlimited plans. They claim to be saving some customers money, just so they can turn those customers on anyone who would dare speak up and say they do need an unlimited plan. If that's not an abuse of power, a manipulative method of control, I don't know what is.

And actually, I incorrectly remembered the lines, the full poem is below for reference:

"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."

-Martin Niemöller
 
[citation][nom]reichscythe[/nom]Um... you do realize the EU has more than double the population of the United States, right? Oh, wait... based on your comment, clearly you don't... Sure the US may have more "land area" than Europe but we're talking about data usage here, not stretching out hundred of square miles of traditional phone lines: the important factor is the number of humans actively using the networks. Moreover, when you make statements implying US government "interference" is the source of our low-tech communication and behind-the-curve bandwidth issues, when Europe, in general, has MORE government regulation across the economic board, you sound like a bit of a tool.[/citation]

Actually, no he doesn't realize this. He's unfortunately one of the mindless droids who keeps harping on how well corporations can regulate themselves despite all evidence to the contrary.
 
[citation][nom]reichscythe[/nom]Um... you do realize the EU has more than double the population of the United States, right? Oh, wait... based on your comment, clearly you don't... Sure the US may have more "land area" than Europe but we're talking about data usage here, not stretching out hundred of square miles of traditional phone lines: the important factor is the number of humans actively using the networks.[/citation]

US: 9,826,675 km2; population: 309,558,000
EU: 4,324,782 km2; population: 501,259,840

US has twice the land area. EU does NOT have twice our population.

I may be a tool for disagreeing with you, but you are ignorant of facts.

[citation][nom]reichscythe[/nom]Moreover, when you make statements implying US government "interference" is the source of our low-tech communication and behind-the-curve bandwidth issues, when Europe, in general, has MORE government regulation across the economic board, you sound like a bit of a tool.[/quote]

Our government's interference was based on "anti trust" as in monopoly is bad. It wanted competing standards. That makes things more expensive. We had to have 2 sets of different system serving the same 300 million people.

Our large geographical area means we need more towers. The same infrastructure can't take advantage of economy of scale. More towers and more switches mean more cost. You're thinking data rate. I'm thinking logistics, the stuff we need to set up to deliver that data to our users.

Do we want 4G coverage everywhere? Sure we do. How many towers do you need to cover the US? We have a bunch of small towns with a few hundred population in the heart land. It takes just a little more money to cover a larger town with twice the user base. Our overhead for infrastructure is much high than Europe due to our low population density. That's the same reason trains don't work well in the US.
 
[citation][nom]STravis[/nom]Actually, no he doesn't realize this. He's unfortunately one of the mindless droids who keeps harping on how well corporations can regulate themselves despite all evidence to the contrary.[/citation]

You are as ignorant of facts as the other guy.

I know full well what corporations want. They want profit. I want profit too. I work. Corporations don't provide services out of the goodness of their hearts, and neither do I. I suppose you work for free or for room and board only. You donate your free time at a soup kitchen and care for wounded animals at the shelter.

Corporations want money. We know that. If they charge too much, we have the right to walk away and not pay for their service. No one pointed a gun at your head to pay for Verizon's data plan. Walk away and show those evil capitalists what for.
 
[citation][nom]blurr91[/nom]You are as ignorant of facts as the other guy.I know full well what corporations want. They want profit. I want profit too. I work. Corporations don't provide services out of the goodness of their hearts, and neither do I. I suppose you work for free or for room and board only. You donate your free time at a soup kitchen and care for wounded animals at the shelter.Corporations want money. We know that. If they charge too much, we have the right to walk away and not pay for their service. No one pointed a gun at your head to pay for Verizon's data plan. Walk away and show those evil capitalists what for.[/citation]

I haven't been with Verizon for a VERY LONG time, but thanks for the advice...I'll roll it up and file it in the trash where it belongs.

You seem to have major issues (read your post - you can barely generate cogent sentences). You also accuse the government of breaking up these phone companies due to anti-monopoly laws. That may be true, but NO ONE forced them to go and use different standards. They could have all used GSM or they could have all used CDMA, but the chose not to. That has nothing to do with the government and everything to do with their business plan.

As for why you work and what you charge for it....I really couldn't care less (which is why I never bothered to ask you) and I never said I work for free - but then again, no one here accused you of being an intellectual giant and understanding what people post.
 
[citation][nom]blurr91[/nom]US: 9,826,675 km2; population: 309,558,000EU: 4,324,782 km2; population: 501,259,840US has twice the land area. EU does NOT have twice our population.I may be a tool for disagreeing with you, but you are ignorant of facts.[/quote]Our government's interference was based on "anti trust" as in monopoly is bad. It wanted competing standards. That makes things more expensive... You're thinking data rate. I'm thinking logistics, the stuff we need to set up to deliver that data to our users.... It takes just a little more money to cover a larger town with twice the user base...[/citation]

Woah, there...Apologies, I was thinkin' of the number for Europe's population in general (which is around 830 Million), not population limited to the 27 EU members states... correction noted...

1) Companies lining up behind competing telecommunications standards has NOTHING to do with our anti-trust laws and EVERYTHING to do with individual companies trying to maximize profits...

2) Absolutely I'm thinkin' data rate! Here in the US data rate is restricted in ways that it isn't in Europe and Asia and it isn't due to towers or wire infrastructure--it's because companies choose to tier access to nickel and dime for features/transfer rates that should be standard... Not saying companies don't have rights, just saying it's not the government OR square miles that are causing our service gaps. Moreover, it's CHEAPER to set up infrastructure in densely populated areas where demand for service high: Yet in said areas of the US, we STILL experience same sub-par data transfer service, even though there are hundreds of existing towers servicing major metro areas. As a slightly related example, I live in an area with a fiber optics infrastructure capable of pipelining 100Mbps internet access into pretty much every house in a 5 mile radius, but when the nearest competition has settled to offer only 5-10Mbps...Guess what? The fiber ops lines are throttled: That's not due to government intervention or geometric area...
 
Well Solider you better switch now to the droid x. Even if you have to pay and be on the waiting list. At least then you will be grandfathered in. I was planning to do the same, but since I have to get a family plan I have to wait for the droid 2, cuz my wife is coming from an old skool fone and doesn't want to go to touch only. But I am thinking about just getting two droid x's and then hopefully returning one within the 30 day policy. And I have a feeling like they are going to bring the droid 2 out 31 days after they change the plan prices.

And what is really dumb is that they are advertising that android 2.2 will be able to do full HTML web browsing. which means that people will be using these devices even more. Verizon is already priced high. But then again when you get near-perfect signal service it must be worth it. Guess we won't see T-mobile dropping unlimited anytime soon.

My buddy should restart his contract. He lives in area that can't get DSL, or Cable. But he has strong 3G with Verizon. So he tethers his phone to his computer and uses that. And it works great. We have used it to stream TV shows all the time. You have to wait maybe 5 mins for it to buffer for a half hour show. But it still beats dial-up, and commercials.
 
"Our government's interference was based on "anti trust" as in monopoly is bad. It wanted competing standards. That makes things more expensive. We had to have 2 sets of different system serving the same 300 million people." - reichscythe

You think competition makes things more expensive? And that monopolies make things cheaper? You need to study basic economics or history to learn that the reason we have antitrust policies is because things get more expensive with monopolies from greedy corporations.
 
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