Confirmed: Verizon Heading into Tiered Pricing

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Tiered pricing coming to Verizon within the next four to six months.

Bad news for those of us locked into Verizon's 2-year contract--the days of "unlimited" data for $29.99 are coming to a close. After months of rumors, Verizon Communications Inc.'s Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg officially announced that tiered plans will be rolled out soon.

While speaking during an investor conference Thursday, Seidenberg said that the new tiered plans will be introduced in the next four to six months, however they will be different than AT&T's tiered structure. "We're not sure we agree yet with how they valued the data," he said without detailing the new tiered plans.

Currently AT&T provides two data services: a basic $15 plan that offers up to 200 MB of data per month, and a $25 plan that offers up to 2 GB of data per month. Those who exceed their plan's data cap are charged an additional fee. By comparison, Verizon customers are (for now) served up unlimited data for a flat $29.99 monthly fee--tethering and hot-spot not included.

Verizon's new tiered plans are expected to be launched in conjunction with the launch of its 4G wireless services and other new products and services. Seidenberg added that Apple would "get with the program" at some point, although he would not provide additional details.

So how will tiered plans affect streaming video and audio? In a recent test, a 31:36 television show streamed from Netflix over a 3G wireless connection totaled 143.2 MB of data--3.2 MB sent and 140 MB received. That's equal to just under 14 episodes of Seinfeld per month--if the testing proved accurate.

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Kevin Parrish

Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then, he’s loved all things PC-related and cool gadgets ranging from the New Nintendo 3DS to Android tablets. He is currently a contributor at Digital Trends, writing about everything from computers to how-to content on Windows and Macs to reviews of the latest laptops from HP, Dell, Lenovo, and more. 

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16 Comments Comment from the forums
  • gmarsack
    ugg....
    Reply
  • eddieroolz
    Well, at least for $25 you're getting more than Rogers offers in Canada...
    Reply
  • robbydek
    I just hope Verizon keeps their word, no tiered 3G data plans and tiered 4G family data plan options.
    Reply
  • Move to T-Mobile, Clear Stream, or even MetroPCS (God help us).
    Reply
  • bonezy
    I'm on verizon. Shame on these idiots. I hear Sprint's network and service isn't that great, but at least they offer better prices, unlimited data, and they don't GIMP THEIR PHONES (i.e. tethering for their 4G Android phones). My droid is going to get traded in for an Epic 4G soon.
    Reply
  • wribbs
    My plans were already in motion before any of this but I'm switching (from verizon) to a prepaid dumbphone (commoncents) and when they finally release a good tablet picking one up. It may not be for everyone but I'm not a facebooking talkaholic and these data plans are just too expensive.
    Reply
  • lukeiamyourfather
    I purchased a Droid X a few weeks ago and have been very impressed with the phone and service as it is today. Hopefully they will not impose the new plans on existing customers, otherwise I'll regret being a Verizon customer.
    Reply
  • I switched to virgin mobile with unlimited text and data for blackberry at 35 a month. It gives me time to see how these chips fall and stay off a contract. These big companies get you hooked then pull it away, upping the price if you go over your very limited amount. ATT towers are supplying service to Comcast's new data card that you can add to your current cable internet. So who is Verizon sharing their wireless data with? Service with vergin mobile has it's price of terible blackberry issues (they can't get text to work with receiving text from ATT and LG Rumor Touch MMS gets sent to the SMS folder of the blackberry so you can't view it and so on but I have unlimited data)
    Reply
  • cag404
    Actually, when they change the plan rates like this, the consumer has a certain period of time (I think it is 30 or 60 days after the change) to cancel your service at no penalty. I will be considering this once they implement this change.
    Reply
  • hythos
    Cellphone companies (and by extension, most communication companies) are proving themselves up to be criminal organizations; even in as simply not notifying their customers when they come close to reaching their allocated monthly subscription, only to then roll out the additional fee once exceeded. Not to mention the "minute" allocation: a call of 1min1sec = 2minutes air-time... and with Verizon, it's "Send to end", meaning a ring-time of 45 seconds + 14 seconds of automated recording = a 1'01" call-time (2 minutes) - even if just to say "call me back".

    Verizon has charged me $45 over the past two months because I came close to BUT DIDN'T ACTUALLY EXCEED my 450 minutes' "plan"... (437 + 445 respectively)
    2 different supervisors have both said they can not identify where the "Overage" had occurred, however they said they can not remove the charges. And of course, should I choose to not pay their extortion fees, they'll be escallated to some collections agency whom would eventually issue a comment to my credit.

    A "good" business model in their industry heavily obviously involves dishonesty.
    Reply