Verizon Wireless cuts pricing

[Brutus]

For those of you interested, Verizon Wireless will be cutting prices on higher rate plans of (for individual lines) above 900 minutes and (for share plans) above 1400 minutes.

Essentially, they are doing away with Connect and Premium rate plans and just making it to where you pay either $9.99 (25 MB) or $29.99 (unlimited) per line for data access. They're also doing away with the 1350 minutes plateau on single line plans.

Where the real savings come in will be with Unlimited pricing. You will now be able to get unlimited talk & texting on single lines for just $89.99 a month. Just unlimited calling (no text plan) will be just $69.99 a month!

Unlimited Share Plans (talk & text) will run you just $149.99 for the first two lines and just $49.99 per line thereafter. Just voice will be $119.99 for the first two lines.

The only catch, though, is that most 3G devices will require at least the $9.99 data add-on. Even despite that, you'll be saving money with additional features.

This goes into affect on Monday. If you have existing Connect or Premium plans, or otherwise a tier that will not exist after Monday, you'll still be able to stay on those plans as long as you don't switch away.

This should be good for consumers. It's the next big step in going to an unlimited-everything product, like landlines. I imagine AT&T will follow-suit with a similar change in the very near future.

(FYI, Friends & Family callingplans - having additional numbers you can call as much as you want - will still be available on the 900 minute single-line tier and 1400 and 2000 minute family-plan tiers. However, 900 minutes single is 59.99 for just voice and 79.99 for texting as well so for $10 more you can go unlimited)

[Reds4Life]

Still not that cheap, for most smart phone owners it would still be $120 + all the fees and taxes a month for unlimited talk, text and data. It's nice to see Verizon cutting prices a little, but they were among the highest in the business to start with.

[Brutus]

Originally Posted by Reds4Life

Still not that cheap, for most smart phone owners it would still be $120 + all the fees and taxes a month for unlimited talk, text and data. It's nice to see Verizon cutting prices a little, but they were among the highest in the business to start with.

They were among the highest, well, they and AT&T were pretty much identical for being the highest, but the coverage and service blows the competitors out of the water. So me personally, I have always been willing to pay the extra $15, $20 a month it costs to have better phones, better coverage and better service.

I know everyone has their own story. Some people prefer AT&T. I respect that. But most neutral customer satisfaction surveys or net promoter score surveys place Verizon as by far the highest-rated carrier, even in spite of the price.

Again, I do recognize it's different strokes for different folks. It's still not cheap, no question. But this is a step in the better direction.

[Caseyfan21]

Originally Posted by Brutus the Pimp

They were among the highest, well, they and AT&T were pretty much identical for being the highest, but the coverage and service blows the competitors out of the water. So me personally, I have always been willing to pay the extra $15, $20 a month it costs to have better phones, better coverage and better service.

I know everyone has their own story. Some people prefer AT&T. I respect that. But most neutral customer satisfaction surveys or net promoter score surveys place Verizon as by far the highest-rated carrier, even in spite of the price.

Again, I do recognize it's different strokes for different folks. It's still not cheap, no question. But this is a step in the better direction.

I have AT&T and have had it since I've had a cell phone on my parents plan. I never really had any trouble with AT&T's service until the iPhone came out and since then I'm not really sure how you can make a case it's better than Verizon's in city type environments. ANY time I'm at a large concert or ball game I can pretty much just guarantee I won't be able to send any text message or get calls. We were at a Bears game earlier this year at Soldier Field and my friend and I with AT&T showed full service but then we couldn't even send texts out. Our other 2 friends who had Verizon had no trouble at all surfing the internet on their phones. And I could name 10 other similar experiences. Other than cases like that in large crowds, AT&T seems to have good service.

[Caveat Emperor]

Apparently AT&T has followed suit and reduced prices for their unlimited plans.

Starting Monday, AT&T is reducing prices to $99.99 per month for unlimited voice and data, with texting being an extra $20 for unlimited use or $15 for 1500 messages.

I guess this is a good deal for some, but for my personal cell phone usage, more talk time is a waste of money. I own an iPhone, and I'm lucky if I use more than 150 of my "anytime" minutes per month. Right now, thanks to AT&T's rollover, I'm carrying a balance of over 1,900 unused minutes. I send a lot of text messages, but 1500 is plenty for my use (as I average somewhere between 800-1000 per month) and I've never come close to going over that cap.

I just don't talk on the phone a ton -- when I'm at work, I have an office phone to use and when work is over there's only about 2 hour window where I'm not in unlimited use territory.

As for AT&T v. Verizon, I've been with both, and both companies stink. Both companies have coverage issues with certain areas of town, both companies are equally difficult to deal with when there are problems, and both companies charge too much and don't offer the type of flexibility to make cell phone usage user friendly (it's 2010 -- why can't I customize a plan for myself and your system figures out how much that should be per month?).

At the end of the day, AT&T has the iPhone and Verizon and Sprint do not. So, for better or worse, I'm with AT&T.

[Unassisted]

Now is not a good time to handcuff yourself to a new 2-year contract with any provider. New wireless providers on new frequencies (this is part of what's being done with the old analog TV channels) will be coming online in 2011 and 2012. They'll be offering unlimited everything for $10-20/month. According to syndicated radio consumer expert Clark Howard, when these new providers appear in the wireless market, all of a sudden it will "seem quaint to pay for wireless service by the minute."

The legacy wireless providers mentioned above want to lock in as many people as possible for 2 years at the current rates to squeeze as much money out of their current networks and licenses as possible.

[Brutus]

Originally Posted by Unassisted

Now is not a good time to handcuff yourself to a new 2-year contract with any provider. New wireless providers on new frequencies (this is part of what's being done with the old analog TV channels) will be coming online in 2011 and 2012. They'll be offering unlimited everything for $10-20/month. According to syndicated radio consumer expert Clark Howard, when these new providers appear in the wireless market, all of a sudden it will "seem quaint to pay for wireless service by the minute."

The legacy wireless providers mentioned above want to lock in as many people as possible for 2 years at the current rates to squeeze as much money out of their current networks and licenses as possible.

Verizon now has monthly plans for just $5 more than the regular contract plans. If you're willing to pay retail price for a phone, you do not need to have a contract.

[Brutus]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

Apparently AT&T has followed suit and reduced prices for their unlimited plans.

Starting Monday, AT&T is reducing prices to $99.99 per month for unlimited voice and data, with texting being an extra $20 for unlimited use or $15 for 1500 messages.

I guess this is a good deal for some, but for my personal cell phone usage, more talk time is a waste of money. I own an iPhone, and I'm lucky if I use more than 150 of my "anytime" minutes per month. Right now, thanks to AT&T's rollover, I'm carrying a balance of over 1,900 unused minutes. I send a lot of text messages, but 1500 is plenty for my use (as I average somewhere between 800-1000 per month) and I've never come close to going over that cap.

I just don't talk on the phone a ton -- when I'm at work, I have an office phone to use and when work is over there's only about 2 hour window where I'm not in unlimited use territory.

As for AT&T v. Verizon, I've been with both, and both companies stink. Both companies have coverage issues with certain areas of town, both companies are equally difficult to deal with when there are problems, and both companies charge too much and don't offer the type of flexibility to make cell phone usage user friendly (it's 2010 -- why can't I customize a plan for myself and your system figures out how much that should be per month?).

At the end of the day, AT&T has the iPhone and Verizon and Sprint do not. So, for better or worse, I'm with AT&T.

Try the Droid, finally there's a fair competitor to the iPhone

I agree on the flexibility. I think that issue is long overdue with carriers. I think Verizon Wireless, though, is one of the best companies I've ever seen. The overall customer satisfaction consistently ranks (not just as the highest in wireless) but is most often in the top 5/10 of major businesses.

No one is perfect. And I realize I probably sound like a Verizon infomercial. But I really have a great amount of respect for it.