Yesterday, at the J.P. Morgan 40th Annual Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Verizon EVP and CFO Frank Shammo mentioned that his company would be forcing customers away from their grandfathered unlimited data plans. The decision is purely financial: “A lot of our 3G base is unlimited. As they start to migrate into 4G, they will have to come off of unlimited and go into the data share plan. And that is beneficial for us for many reasons, obviously. So as you pick what tier you want to be and we think that there will be some price up in those tiers.”
After catching a large amount of heat from consumers, Verizon released a statement as an attempt damage control. The only problem: The statement is essentially a non-statement that confirms or denies nothing.
“As we have stated publicly, Verizon Wireless has been evaluating its data pricing structure for some time. Customers have told us that they want to share data, similar to how they share minutes today. We are working on plans to provide customers with that option later this year. We will share specific details of the plans and any related policy changes well in advance of their introduction, so customers will have time to evaluate their choices and make the best decisions for their wireless service.”
Some media outlets are reporting that Verizon is backpedaling, but those of us here at Tecca see no evidence of that. The fact that the company is saying nothing specific about its plans to kill unlimited data plans seems to suggest that, indeed, unlimited data plans are on the chopping block “later this year.”
{Today in Tech/Matzav.com Newscenter}
A good excuse to start shopping for a new cell phone provider.