According to a Reuters report, Verizon Wireless will be revamping its data plan offerings this summer and will get rid of unlimited data plans for its smart phone users. The announcement was made by Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo at this week’s Global Technology Summit in San Francisco. The change is similar the one AT&T enacted last June when it announced it would no longer offer unlimited data plans.
Any guesses what led to the change? Hmmm, could it be heavy iPhone usage?
Even though Verizon claimed to have a handle on the impending data demand in advance of releasing its iPhone, the reality has clearly proven to be more of a challenge. Like AT&T, Verizon will begin offering tiered pricing for its data users that better reflect their online consumption.
On a positive note, the company also announced that it is considering offering family data plans, similar to the carrier’s family voice plans.
“We had individual minutes for individual users. Then we eventually got to what we call family share where everyone in the family shares the same minutes,” Shammo said.
“I think it’s safe to assume that at some point you are going to have mega-plans (for data) and people are going to share that mega-plan based on the number of devices within their family. That’s just a logical progression,” he said.
No further details on a family data plan were provided.
