The Month Of Big Data Plans?
This month (October) is bringing some of the biggest changes I’ve seen in the mobile internet landscape for years. In fact, the changes are so big that we’re personally re-evaluating our entire online strategy & may even {{gasp}} consider signing a direct plan with one of the major carriers (Verizon or AT&T). Given that we’ve spent years recommending the cheaper MVNO’s (Straight Talk, Millenicom, Tracfone etc.) this is a pretty big switch. The deals are only being offered through end of October, so if you’re about to get on the road, or already on the road and haven’t seen these announcements, now is the time to look at this.
First of all I should point out that the only reason I really know about any of this stuff is because of the awesome Mobile Internet Afficionado’s group. Chris & Cherie keep ontop of just about everything that could affect mobile data-lovers and post it right away on their group news releases. If you’re an RVer who relies on internet I really can’t recommend this group enough. There’s a small yearly fee for membership, but you’ll quickly make it up with one of the many tech announcements and/or in-depth members-only articles that they offer on the group. Seriously, it’s worth it.
So, what is the %% is going on?????
It all started about a week ago when AT&T suddenly offered double-data for all shared cellphone plans with 15GB and above of data. This meant that if you signed up for a 15GB plan, you’d get automatic doubling of that plan to 30GB for the same price. So, for $130/mo you suddenly get 30GB of data (previously 15GB), for $150/mo you get 40GB of data (previously 20GB), for $225/mo you get 60GB (previously 30GB) and so on. You need to add access fees ontop of this for each device you put on the plan (between $15-$40/mo, depending on device), plus you’ve got to add taxes & surcharges too, but even with these things added on the plans are very attractive for big data users.
A few days later Verizon suddenly realized they were in deep do-do because of this and decided to fight back. They immediately upped the data on their shared plans to $130/mo for 30GB of data, $150/mo for 40GB of data, $225/mo for 60GB and so on. Access fees are between $15-$40/mo, depending on device and you’ve got to add taxes & surcharges ontop, but basically it’s exactly the same deal as AT&T. Sprint jumped right in with their own double-deal too, but since they’re a smaller footprint (= a poorer choice for fulltime RVers who travel extensively) I won’t go into the details. The bottom line is AT&T & Verizon, two guys with pretty extensive networks (= good coverage for fulltime RVers) have both offered major plan changes for the month of October.
What does this mean for RVers???
It entirely depends what type of internet-user you are. If you’re the type that only uses a small amount of data each month it will not make any difference for you at all, but if you’re a bigger data user (anything above 15GB/mo) or someone who relies fulltime on internet (for online work and such) it’s a major deal. Suddenly bigger quantities of internet are available at very attractive prices. 30GB of data, which would formerly cost over $220 to get, can now be gotten for under $150. Wow! Also, if you’re the type that needs both AT&T and Verizon (for maximum coverage), you can now look at signing contracts with both guys for very reasonable prices, breaking out your data buckets where you need them most.
The other thing this does is put huge pressure on the MVNO’s. Previous to this announcement the absolute best deal on the market for higher data-users was Millenicom’s 20GB plan for $89.99/mo. Those RVers requiring 40GB would have to buy twice the bucket for ~$180/mo. Now, you can get the same deal direct at either AT&T or Verizon for only $150/mo (plus access, taxes & fees). If your family uses multiple smart-phones the direct plans make even more sense since each phone you add to the plan is only a small, incremental cost.
Take us as an example. We currently pay the following costs:
“Old” MVNO Combo -> Phone + 23GB/mo of Data
| Device | Cost |
|---|---|
| Millenicom MiFi -> 20GB | $89.99/mo |
| Straight Talk -> unlimited talk/text & 3GB of data (non-sharable) | $45/mo |
| Total monthly costs for phone + 23GB/mo | ~$135/mo* |
*All taxes and surcharges included
This combo has served us very well for the past 2 years, but in the past 4-5 months we’ve noticed we’ve been getting dangerously close to the 20GB limit on the Millenicom, and have been thinking about upgrading. A second Millenicom MiFi would add another 20GB of data (so, 40GB in total), but would also add another $89.99/mo to our costs.
Upgraded “Old” MVNO Combo -> Phone + 43GB/mo of Data
| Device | Cost |
|---|---|
| 2 x Millenicom MiFi -> 40GB | $179.98/mo |
| Straight Talk -> unlimited talk/text & 3GB of data (non-sharable) | $45/mo |
| Total monthly costs for phone + 43GB/mo | ~$225/mo* |
*All taxes and surcharges included
With the “new deals” we can now get the following:
Upgraded “New” Verizon Combo -> Phone + 40GB/mo of Data
| Device | Cost |
|---|---|
| Verizon 40GB plan (fully sharable) | $150/mo |
| Smartphone Access Fee (unlimited talk/text) | $15/mo* |
| MiFi Access Fee | $20/mo |
| Total monthly costs for phone + 40GB/mo | $185/mo** |
*$15/mo is for bring-you-own phone, full price phone or “edge” price phone. If you get a subsidized smartphone on a 2-yr contract you’ll pay $40/mo
**Taxes and surcharges not included
See the attraction? Even with the taxes & surcharges added ontop, the direct deals are looking mighty compelling for anyone who needs more than 20GB/mo, and you don’t have to sign a long-term contract unless you want a subsidized phone. The more phones you add or the more data you need the more cost-attractive the direct deals get. Existing Verizon or AT&T customers can simply up their plans to take advantage of the double-data buckets. New sign-ups will need to be activated, but might be able to get extra incentives (waive the activation fee? cash-back incentives?) if they shop around & play the board.
The gotcha?? You’ve got to make your decision this month (the double-data deals are only being offered for October) and once you decide on a plan you have to stick with it. If you decide down the line to change your plan you lose your double-data bonus.
So, what will we do???
I’m not sure yet. We’re waiting a few weeks to see how all this plays out. Given these major announcements I’m expecting the MVNO’s to fight back, if they can. Who knows…maybe this whole Verizon deal will trickle down to Millenicom who will come back with their own double-data plan? Maybe Straight Talk will offer a new deal too? Either way, it looks like October is going to be the month of big data shake-up and we can’t let these deals pass us by. We’ll be watching them closely (via our MIA group) and making some kind of change before the month is up. I advise you to do the same.
Thanks for the ‘heads up’; lots of info presented clearly and succinctly. You’re blog is amazing!
I meant: you’re amazing or your blog is amazing – duh.
Tee hee..I got the message. And thank you 🙂
Nina
I switched my home internet to satellite from a slow DSL because of my rural location. I’m on the internet a lot but didn’t realize how much data I was using with my DSL account. I found out real quick that 15Gb per month does not last long.
Now I am not on the internet a lot but about all I can do is email, surf the internet reading, NO DOWNLOADING and NO UPLOADING PHOTOS….that does not count YouTube and any kind of videos.
Luckily I get free data between midnight and 5am and I am a night person.
Great post of information. For my iPhone on Verizon, I get 10Gb’s for $64 including tax, calls and texts unlimited.
Satellite is a great option for fixed homes in rural areas, but sadly very difficult to implement in an RV. Most companies won’t support RV’s anymore, and the few that do are outrageously expensive.
Regarding your Verizon phone plane I’m sure you meant 1GB and not 10GB. The only Verizon plan that offers 10GB of data is their shared “More Everything” plan and that costs $100/mo just for the data alone (excl. access fees, taxes etc.). Data costs for 1GB on the same plan is $40 which, with access fees and such added on, would be right around the $60/mo that you mention. Their single line plans run $50-60/mo (also in the same range) and include unlimited text/talk, but only 2GB of data.
Nina
It’s hard to believe but the 10gb is correct. I switched over from AT&T June 24, 2014 and Verizon gave me a plan for $55 per month before taxes with 10gb of data. My main reason for switching though was the potential of traveling west in the future.
I have the single line plan.
I’m really surprised. I looked at the single line plans the first month they came out, but data was limited to 1-2GB. That was less than what I was getting on Straight Talk so I didn’t make the switch. You must have gotten a limited-time offer or they made a mistake on your plan. That deal definitely doesn’t exist anymore.
Nina
I stand corrected, you are right!!! LOL I thought that was quite a bit of data for $50 since I am paying $80 for 15gb for my house…so I took a look at my plan on my phone and I do have ONE….ONE….lol gb.
Sorry for the confusion.
Oh phew! Ok I thought I was missing something major. That would have been a spectacular deal. Thanks for clarifying!
Nina
Thanks for the awesome information!
THANKS for this update…we have 1 phone with Verizon and 1 with ATT, which I like because we have coverage wherever we go, so I’m really hoping for Millenicom step their game! Also because Verizon sucks in Baja and can’t use our mifi there either so it’s nice to have that “no-contract” option with Millenicom…
The ability to put the Millenicom MiFi on “vacation” when you cross the border is a huge point in their favor for folks who travel to Mexico or Canada on a regular basis. Verizon doesn’t offer that option as far as I know, although you do have the option (with Verizon) to change your data bucket month-to-month and thus save some $$ (see Rob’s comment below -> that’s what he does). Of course this won’t work with the new double-data deal (once you chose it you’ve got to stick with it or lose it)…so always decisions to make 🙂
Nina
Actually… to the best of my knowledge and understanding, if you have a contract on Verizon you can suspend your service while out of country or not needing it. When you re-activate, your contract picks up. So, if you suspend for 3 months, it’s like adding 3 months to your contract end date.
Of course, with most plans going contract free these days any way.. that’s quickly becoming a concern of the past.
Good info! I’ll have to research if something like this is also possible for the Verizon/AT&T month-to-month options (maybe with a reactivation fee?) and whether that would cause you to lose the double-data deal (probably?). Likely we’ll choose to buy a second hand phone and sign a non-contract deal. At least that’s the current jello plan.
Nina
I am still on my old unlimited plan. Luckily I won’t need to change anything since Verizon called of their plan to “throttle” when 5GB is reached.
Those old unlimited Verizon plans are rare and precious commodities indeed. It’s a big deal that Verizon dropped their plan to throttle. All the more reason to hang onto those plans!
Nina
As usual, GREAT and extremely useful post Nina! Thanks for staying on the ball and passing everything on to us!
Glad it’s helpful, although I have to credit Chris & Cherie for keeping me ontop of this one.
Nina
Ahhh! Decisions, decision!! We were on our way to signing up for Millenicom in December as we’re currently paying $180 with Verizon for 2 smart phones and 6g’s. This changes everything! Can’t wait to hear if Millenicom can compete!
Exactly. This changes everything! I’m loving the competition between the carriers. It all benefits us!
Nina
Just my .02 AND personal preference. In the last 6 months we switched from being a 20 year AT&T customer to T-Mobile after some unfortunate ‘funny’ business on AT&T’s side.
I am also the manager of 20 Verizon Air Card/Jet Pack devices and have had 2 problems with them. The 1st was for me personally when I was charged data from Canada when we were on San Juan Island. I was aware of Canadian data charges from towers and had set the Jet pack to warn before switching. I always said NO and charges appeared from Canada on my bill. Verizon promptly analyzed the charges and concluded that it was me answering the towers to say NO to data. No charge from Verizon at all. We also had a problem where a user’s air card had racked up 50GB in one month and had already used 27GB in the 1st 10 days of the next month. His previous average use for the 6 months never more than 2GB. Verizon promptly credited all charges and replaced the air card that was racking up the GB.
I would choose Verizon.
Chuck
Thanks for sharing your experience. We’d probably go with Verizon anyway (we’ve relied on their network for years and like the coverage), but it’s good to get confirmation of their customer service. It’s been several years since we had any direct dealings with them.
Nina
Good info! Even before we heard of this we had decided to dump Millenicom and just go with more gigs (16-20) on Verizon directly. Even at the rates before the double data offer we calculated that for Verizon we would net out a bit cheaper than keeping Millenicom – this is because at least 2-4 months per year we don’t need our Millenicom plan (yes I know you can put it on hold but that reduces flexibility and complicates using the service) due to cheaper/free options at certain places we stay. At the same time we keep a Verizon plan at all times for two phones at ~2gigs/mo so we have data when we are not at the coach. On Verizon the delta between the two gigs and something near the 16 or 20 gigs was equal or less than the Millenicom cost. Add in the ability to increase or decrease the monthly allotment on the fly with Verizon (maybe not possible with the double data plans?) and for us that could very well mean a substantially lower annual rate. On top of that it is a whole lot more convenient to manage your gigs if they are all sourced from the same place. AND, with Verizon we can check our data usage on the fly – not the three or more day lag you get with Millenicom. The 2 year contract has never been an issue for us since we upgrade to the latest phones every two years and find subsidizing the cost that way makes sense. We’ll wait a couple weeks to see what Millenicom does and take it from there. As always thanks for the excellent and timely info!
Every situation is so different and your example shows exactly why. Sounds like you’ve found a great solution that works perfectly for you.
And no, you wouldn’t be able to change the data bucket on the fly if you decide to take advantage of this new double data deal. You’ll lose the double data if you do. At least that’s the way this deal is currently being promoted. It’s a one-time limited offer and once you take it, you gotta stick with it to keep it.
Of course, who knows? All the plans could change again in a few months. This Internet stuff is always changing!
Nina
Thanks for this post! I just upgraded data usage on our AT&T plan to 30 gb with 2 iPhones and 2 iPads AND reduced our monthly bill by $20/month. With so many slow WiFi connections, it is so much easier (and faster) to use AT&T.
Awesome! That’s exactly the reason I posted this. Glad you were able to take advantage of the deal!
Nina
As always, thanks for great research and information. Not being on the road full-time as yet, we’re not needing to deal with this as yet. As it is, we have two phones on separate plans with minimal data. I think we pay a combined amount of about $115 per month. I know we could do better. More options with a shared plan, more new phone opportunities, etc. But it’s not something we’re looking forward to. I for one, still are of the opinion that these plans are about of a ripoff. $160-$200 a month to communicate? Isn’t that in the neighborhood of a car payment? Oh no, it’s not. A car payment is less.:)
Yup, Internet on the road is not cheap, but for many it’s essential. Unfortunately “free” sources of Internet are very hard to survive on when you Fulltime RV and spend a lot of time online. Libraries and coffee shops are probably the most reliable sources, but we don’t personally like to be tied to them. Campground (Private RV Park) Internet is terrible (notoriously unreliable) across the board. So, for most folks having an in-RV solution is key. Part of the price of fulltime RVing…
That said I don’t have to mow a lawn and I rarely (if ever) pay for electricity. That must be worth at least a few hundred a month, right? 🙂
Nina
“That said I don’t have to mow a lawn and I rarely (if ever) pay for electricity. That must be worth at least a few hundred a month, right? :)”
Living in the desert of So-Cal, we don’t mow a lawn either. And we’re working on that “rarely paying electricity” thing. But I definitely get your point.
Thanks so much for the info. We rely on Verizon for our data plan and topped out at 20Gb. Just this last month we had 6 days of not being able to use the internet because we had used up all our data. I called and got double the Gb for the same price! Now we can even stream video! Thank you, thank you!
Sweeeet! Glad it worked out for you!
Nina
Hmmm….I’ve been reading and looking at all the options and then I stumbled on Karma https://yourkarma.com/how-it-works. I get tired of paying for minutes I don’t use and then being charged double for going over 10 minutes. I see the same thing with the Verizon Jetpack, etc. I talked to Verizon for a while last evening about their Jetpack and it was totally frustrating. Then I found Karma and have been talking to them. Their wifi from what I can tell is pay as you go. What a concept!! I’m looking at purchasing their newest unit which delivers in December. No contracts, no unused data, no overages, just pay for what you use. If anyone has experience with or comments about this company and it’s service I’m all ears.
The biggest issue with Karma is that it runs on the Sprint network which has very, very poor coverage outside of major metropolitan areas. If you’re a fulltime RVer traveling cross-country it would be very hard to use as a primary option. Chances are you’d have zero coverage in lots of places. On the other hand if you’re mostly a static RVer staying in big cities it could make sense for you.
How do I know all this? Well, yet again MIA to the rescue:
http://www.rvmobileinternet.com/is-lte-karma-good-for-rvers/
Nina
This looks interesting. $14/GB, never expires, no contract, appears to run on the Sprint network, will fall back to CDMA if no LTE connection.
Yup, it’s a nice feature that the data never expires, but the Sprint network is the big “gotcha”. Very, very spotty coverage outside of bigger cities. Also if you’re using larger quantities of data it’s overly expensive per GB compared to the bigger plans. For smaller users in bigger cities, it could work. For larger users or RVers who travel a lot outside of big cities it doesn’t make sense.
Nina
I just sent a fairly large “question” to Karma with a link to MIA’s article. I’ll see what the response is and get back to you all. I was also wincing when I saw Sprint network so I wasn’t totally convinced hence the comment. I’m not real gullible….takes a while to grab my money from me!!! Haven’t ordered anything from anyone yet. Hate the hold that the computers/internet have on me, but I’ll admit I’d go down screaming if I had to give it up.
Yeah, I think the image from the MIA post of the Sprint coverage map really says all you need to know as an RVer, especially if you are going to travel out West.
Also, if you do the math on the per GB cost you’ll find it really is expensive if you need bigger buckets of data. For smaller usage (1-2 GB/mo) the cost might make sense, but for bigger usage (over 10GB/mo) it becomes far too expensive. The lack of coverage alone would make it a no-go for me.
Nina
Nina this is great information. Not sure how it applies to us since I have a smart phone still with unlimited from Verizon which I hope never to have to give up. BUT we also have two phones and a small data package for our hotspot from verizon. Your figures are only for data right? They don’t include phone minutes which would make your “staying connected” charges for each month higher. Our biggest costs at this point are for minutes shared between one smart and one dumb phone.
Good question Sherry since I didn’t make that point entirely clear in my post. All the phones on these “share” plans have unlimited talk/text minutes.
Basically the way these plans work is that you pay a base cost for a bucket of data (say, $150 for 40GB) and then you pay an additional “access fee” for each device you want to share that data with. The access fee for a smartphone is $15/mo if you bring your own phone (it’s $40/mo if you want a subsidized phone). That access fee includes unlimited talk/text on the phone plus your phone gets to share the central 40GB data bucket. If you want another phone on the plan that’s another $15/mo -> again unlimited talk/text and you share the 40GB. If you also want a MiFi then you add $20/mo for that device to share in the data bucket.
So, one central bucket of data, multiple devices get to share it. Each device pays a small access fee to do so. All phones on the share plan are unlimited talk/text.
Make sense?
Nina
I’ve been using FoxFi–$7.95 one time fee–to create a hotspot for a couple of years on my out of contract Verizon unlimited data plan. Hoping this phone keeps on working for a long time.
Oh yea, plus $85/mo to Verizon. And I put it on vacation for 3 months when I went to South Africa with a $35 charge.
I WISH I had one of those unlimited plans, but sadly they’re gone as an option. It’s possible to buy unlimited plans second-hand, but I haven’t looked into it.
Nina
My crystal ball says that this is just the beginning of the softening of the carriers—and that November and December will bring even sweeter deals just in time for Christmas. By then, Millenicom had sure better follow suit—to finally make up for their Sprint and VZW fiascos these past twelve months.
You may well be right. It’s going to be an interesting few months for sure.
Nina
My goodness Ms. Nina, you are a wealth of information–you even excited the frugal cowboy!! Wednesday we were in a Verizon store (like you we use Straight Talk and Millenicom) trying to find options to rid ourselves of our land line. Sadly the tools we brought home–MiFi device, 4G booster and an iPhone did not work here at the house so we are stuck with our local telephone company. But, that does make us existing Verizon customers so maybe we can up our plan??? I would want to call Verizon and see what the rules are on suspending service for the times we are here at home as we would be paying for something we can’t use. BUTTTT, if we go fulltime, this is a sweet deal, thanks for sharing!!!
The suspension of service is a really good question. Do let me know what you find out. I’d be interested to find out if you can keep the double data deals with suspension. I’m still hoping we get some fight back from the MVNO’s. We’ll see.
Nina
Great blog posting thanks wheeling it…
Interesting though the data alone plans are more expensive than voice and data
Yup, I noticed that when I looked through the plan options this week. Most folks want at least 1-2 phones too, so the share plans make more sense but I thought it was interesting nonetheless.
Nina
It’s interesting that you’ve experienced the same thing we have, getting dangerously close to the 20GBs. In fact we went over a couple months ago and got shut down for 2 days since we weren’t willing to pay Millenicom another $89 for such a short time. What we can’t figure out is we aren’t doing anything different online from what we have in the past, but we seem to be using more data.
These new double data plans are certainly something to consider.
Yup, that’s exactly what happened to us and we definitely weren’t doing much different (that I can think of). The problem is websites, browsers etc. all seem to use more data as they get “fancier”. We’ve turned off auto-play on videos, turned off all updates and yet we still seem to gobble more data every month. It’s just the nature of the beast I guess. We’ll see how/if Millenicom reacts to all this.
Nina
This is a good point, and especially relevant for capped data users. It’s really a topic unto itself (and perhaps already posted), but needless to say, loading a web page can easily download a megabyte of data or more. This page came in a little over 1.5 MB. Add probably another 20% overhead for transport protocols, etc, and it’ll weigh in at 2 MB. A shopping site page I tested tipped the scales at a little over 5MB.
Additionally, keep multiple windows/tabs open, and even though you’re just viewing one page, all those others are likely automatically reloading every ‘n’ minutes. This includes the ads running on those hidden tabs. Your techniques to manually control flash content (many ads use flash player) and auto-updates are good advice. I also would add disabling most tracking sites. For a given web page, there can be 20 or more sites collecting your mouse clicks, movement, and data entered, which can double the amount of data being exchanged. I assume data limits on these plans include sent as well as received?
So, while 5MB may not seem much at first, one can see how it quickly adds up. It’s like viewing my credit card statement at the end of the month; nickel-and-dimed to death. Too many, this may not seem worth the hassle (disabling tracking can cause problems on some pages), but for those on a frugal budget and low data caps…
Cheers,
JimS
All VERY good tips JimS. I did not know that keeping multiple pages open could impact my data usage, but the way you describe it, it makes sense. I do have Ad Blocker on all my browsers, but haven’t looked at disabling tracking. Good info.
Nina
Thanks, so glad I read your blog. I just switched my Verizon plan from 20 gigs of data to 30 gigs, and my bill is $20.00 less per month…thanks I wouldn’t have known without your excellent blog!!
Ray
Outstanding! Glad it worked out for you!
Nina
This is great information and I will add it to my knowledge base, as I move forward to my Full-time spring 2015 launch date.
Hopefully the competition will continue & you’ll have even more options by the time you reach your launch.
Nina
Thanks for sharing this with your reader’s Nina.. hopefully it’ll help a lot of folks figure this stuff out!
We recommend most folks wait it out a few more days before making any big changes that involve buying devices, activating new plans or canceling existing ones. (Full post: http://www.rvmobileinternet.com/our-recommendation-hold-off-on-any-big-cellular-plan-decisions/)
Just as a clarification, we keep an entirely FREE newsfeed and knowledge base on our RV Mobile Internet Resource Center at http://www.rvmobileinternet.com/blog and our Internet for RVers Facebook group – where we post alerts like this. While, as a MIA member you heard about it through those channels, our alerts were also posted to the free news feed and group. We’re happy to provide that as a service to our RVing community.
The MIA group is completely optional for those who want more in-depth analysis, access to our Q&A forums, special newsletters and such.
Thanks for adding your thoughts Cherie. All good tips, as usual.
Nina
Thank you for this information. I got online immediately and checked it out for us. We’re with AT&T, 2 iphones and a mobile Hotspot and 20G/mo shared data. Most months we’re not close on the data, but we ration ourselves and only watch Netflix if we feel we can spare the data use. 40G was too much, but I upped to 30G and lowered our monthly bill by $25.00! Cool deal! No more worries about overages.
Cool! Very happy it worked out for you.
Nina
Thanks for sharing Nina. I just renewed my Verizon contract in July. They gave me 1 GB above what I was paying. I hope in the next month or so I can snag the double GB plan. It seems I am always sweating at the end of the monthly cycle.
If you’re going to up your plan, make sure you do it before the end of this month (Oct). As of today these plans are only being offered until Oct 31st. They may extend in the future, of course, but that’s the current deal.
Nina
Hi Nina, good info as usual. We only travel 3 mo. a year but found the best deal for us was T-Mobile $30 plan for each of our phones. I have the 100 min/5gig data plan and my wife has 1000 min/30 meg data plan. I also have the foxfi app on my android phone that lets me share the data with my wife and our laptops ect. we use her phone for most calls. At home, i have wifi and use a free Vonage app to make calls when my wife phone is not available.
T-Mobile is available along most highways and in larger towns and cities, I think the only place I could not connect that we go is John Day, Oregon. the plan allows for data roaming on other networks if they are available.
cheers,
Dan
Thanks for your input Dan. We have a “back-up” T-mobile SIM for our iPad and honestly the coverage hasn’t worked for us at all. We got it back in April and haven’t had a usable signal for most of our NV or OR travels. Even the coast was very limited (no coverage here in Cape Blanco, for example). That said, it can be a great deal for those that stick to the larger towns & cities, as you mentioned.
Nina
My understanding of the free data with the phone is it is only good if you buy your phone and keep the same plan you have…i.e. we had unlimited data with the Nationwide plan and 3G for data….us keep that plan I would still have to use the Nationwide plan (for me no texting and 700 mins…) but not sure if they would throttle me or not…
so for this plan I did not think it was a good idea to keep unlimited…that what was worth keeping is the unlimited data plan for pads/tablets…did I get this wrong?
Not sure I completely understand your question. Basically if you have an “unlimited” data plan you lose it if you switch to one of these “shared” plans.
The upside of the “shared” plans is that you get unlimited text/talk on your phone, you get to buy subsidized phones (or pay-in-installment phones) and you can upgrade easily, but you are limited on your data side to whatever bucket you sign up to. With your old “unlimited” data plan you have the opposite effect -> limited data/text, but unlimited data and it’s not easy to upgrade. So, just depends what is more important for you.
Personally if we had an unlimited data plan we would be hanging on to it. Those things are precious commodities. Verizon doesn’t throttle unlimited data unless it’s 3G only. To keep the unlimited plan & upgrade your phone, you have to buy your phone at full price and then work through some loopholes to get it added onto the unlimited plan. It’s not entirely trivial from what I understand, but I know RVers who’ve done it.
Nina
Verizon must give everyone a different story according to the plans they are already on (if you use them already as we do). We are full-timers now (actually at Cape Blanco, and loving it!), and have had Verizon for years. We have the More Everything Family plan (4 phones, kids on it also), and I was so excited when I saw your post about this I called them right away. First they said it was only for Edge customers. Then they said as we have had Verizon for 10 years plus, we could purchase extra GB’s at a more reasonable cost. So I could go from my 8 GB plan for $90 per month (and we pay $40 per line for each smartphone in addition to the data charges) to now getting 12 GB per month for an additional $20, and they will throw in 3 more GB, making it 15 GB per month for $110. That is better than I was getting, so we will go for it. Just wish they would have doubled it, and let us pay less per line! Thanks for pointing out things are changing, and hope to see you at the lighthouse!
The double data bonus is only being applied to plans above 15GB/mo. So, if you ask for the next level, you will get it. Currently 30GB is being offered for $130. So, for $20 more than you are currently paying you will get twice as much data. I would call back and ask again!
Also if you are out of contract on your phones you should be able to drop their monthly access fee from $40/mo to $15/mo.
Nina
Here’s another way to view the new Verizon data plans. The crossed-out numbers are the “old” data plans, with the “new” double-data incentives next to them. Verizon put you on the 15GB plan for $110. For another $20 you can get onto the 30GB plan.
Nina
Thanks! We’ll look further into this whole thing. More GB would be great!
Just for fun I happened to enter the MEID of an old phone into VZW’s Build Your Plan tool—and it wants $40/mo, not $15 as you claimed for bring-your-own-phone. There is wording that suggests the $25 “savings” is already built in to the pricing for the new plans 10GB as above. So your $185/mo ideal plan may actually be $210…
Well this would be a total change in their strategy. Previous to this month you could bring your own phone for $15/mo on all “More Everything” plans with 10GB/mo and above of data.
They still have this article on their website:
http://www.verizonwireless.com/news/article/2014/02/more-everything-plans.html
And here’s the paragraph that applies:
“Bring Your Own Device: New customers who want to experience the nation’s largest and most reliable network can add any smartphone they already own to a MORE Everything plan for either $30 or $15 depending on the data allowance they choose. When a customer brings his or her own smartphone, it must be compatible with the Verizon Wireless network.”
Nina
Ah-hah.. I was just coming here to see if this had been brought up. We researching the Verizon plans, and came across information that back in February 2014 they originally only extended the $15/month per device to Edge customers (ie. financing the phone) and NOT to bring your own or paid off phones.
Seems they’ve changed it since.. at least for new customers. Still researching how it might impact current customers adding a line.
Yeah, it’s actually a tad confusing and not explicitly pointed out on their website (unless you dig deep), but the discount is applied to customers who bring their own phone. It also applies to out of contract customers as far as i understand.
The discount was implemented in April of this year. Previously it was only for Edge customers, and it was originally billed as a “limited time” offer, but the rep on the phone said yesterday that I would get the $15/mo deal if I bought my own phone today.
Here’s the April announcement:
http://www.verizonwireless.com/news/article/2014/04/more-everything-savings-coming.html
This price only applies to larger data plans (10GB and above)…below that it’s $30/mo for bring your own. I guess the final “test” of this would be if/when we actually signed up to a plan.
One more link. Again, this switch all happened in April:
http://www.cnet.com/news/verizon-bring-your-own-device-get-a-discount/
Nina
Aaaand…I just called Verizon. They confirmed that if I brought my own smartphone on the 30GB plan I would pay $15/mo for it. So, I’d advise giving them a call. The web pricing is clearly not giving you the right info, or there’s something unusual about your particular phone that changes it.
By the way I also confirmed that I could port over my MiFi if I wanted. So, total pricing is confirmed as above.
Nina
Kudos for checking, I just didn’t want you saddled with an extra $25 at the end. The $40/mo thing could just be sour grapes for me being a VZW ex-customer 😉
When I entered the MEID of my Millenicom jetpack it also said “not compatible”—but that may be because it is already an active device and/or locked by Millenicom. I assume you checked that Mcom would release any lock if you asked them to?
No need to unlock the Millenicom. You simply insert a new SIM from Verizon. The MiFi is not a phone so it wouldn’t show as compatible on the website.
I’m still waiting to see how the MVNO’s react to all this. The month is not done yet.
Nina
FYI, I just returned from the Verizon Store and showed them the printed article you linked above. They agreed that the charge for activating an existing smartphone is $15, that was with a 15GB plan.
Excellent!!! It’s nice to have it reconfirmed. Thanks for reporting back.
Nina
I’ve been a longtime Verizon customer and have been ready to upgrade phones and re-up my contract. I’ve visited a Verizon store and gone online and am not experiencing any “double data” offers…just the same plan I have had.
Am I missing something?
You should be seeing the exact data plans I listed in the post above. By that I mean $130 for 30GB/mo, $150 for 40GB/mo, $225 for 60GB/mo etc… These ARE the “double data” plans. Previously you could only get 1/2 the data for that price. The plans are not being explicitly marketed as “double data” mostly because they’re a reaction to AT&T (so, it’s my belief Verizon are trying to keep this somewhat “under the radar”). However the deal is there, and it’s definitely on. To make it even clearer, if you look in my comment to Judy E (above) you’ll see a table that shows the “old” data plans compared to the “new” ones, side by side.
NOTE//// As I mentioned in the blog post “double data” is ONLY being applied to the LARGER data plans (above 15GB/mo). You won’t see any bonus in the smaller plans. So, if you call Verizon and ask to be upgraded to the new 30GB (or larger) plan, you’ll get the new “double data” pricing.
Nina
Thanks, Nina. I think the problem was that I was not talking to them about enough data. I really appreciate you responding to my “not-so-bright” question. You guys rock!!!
No worries. Glad I could help sort it out 🙂
Nina
What a coincidence. Recently we did not have internet service and was told that we are over the limit, What? We have not done anything different in the past month. Then our hardware won’t power off, it got stuck in this loop thing. Millenicom could not replace it immediately so we bought a new hot spot from Verizon.
Like you we will be watching if Millenicom will jump in the bandwagon for double data. We are assessing our situation and your detailed blog and further comments will factor in our final decision. Thank you Nina for doing the work for us, it is immensely helpful.
Sounds like the timing of these new deals is perfect for you, although having your MiFi die is a pain in the butt. Sure hope we get something new out of the MVNO’s. We’ll see.
Nina
three things I’ve learned the hard way.
You cannot place too much trust in coverage maps. I have had better Sprint reception in out of the way spots in north-east Texas, south-east Oklahoma and rural mid-Tennessee than folks around me using other carriers. Where I am most of the time while I work out some issues in the “major metropolitan area” of north-central Dallas, Texas, cellular coverage maps say I have great coverage and strong signal… it ain’t so. I often have to restart page loads 2 or more times on Sprint, Verizon or TMobile yet Clear (formerly Clearwire) always comes through fine despite the fact that Clear’s website says I can’t get its signal at my location at all.
Cellular coverage tends to follow highways between as well as around “metropolitan” areas. This is especially useful for Verizon and Sprint customers as CDMA signals usefully travel up to 40 miles from the tower which is 1.5-2 times as far as GSM from AT&T or TMobile.
The post above about “issues” with AT&T reminds me that getting into their service is a very different thing than getting out. When I switched from AT&T’s predecessor to Sprint, the billed me over $350.00 for contract cancellation even though I had not had a contract with the for almost a decade and when my nephew switched off AT&T because his phone was through an account with my brother who died, AT&T charged him over $250.00 for switching off the dead contract. Not funny.
edward
THANKS, My daughter and I have been sharing a Verizon family plan with two phones and 10 gb and using the phones as hot spots for $180 +tax. Last week Verizon threw us a bone and changed it to 15gb for FREE. Yesterday, we were about to go to the Verizon store to thank them and add a Jetpack so we could use an antenna. Then I saw your information. Now we have 30gb, two phones and a Jetpack for $180 +tax. They even waved the $35 activation fee for my Jetpack. All on mo to mo and no contract. THANKS
Outstanding! So happy the deals worked out for you!
Nina
This is why some people are having trouble getting this plan. Three days ago I called Verizon Corp. and ask if they had any better plans than we had. She said there were not any (a lie). Then I read your story and went to my usual Verizon store. They said they could not do this plan and that I would need to go to a Corp. owned store in Harrison. They gave me the plan just like you said.
Veery interesting. They’re definitely not “advertizing” these big data plans, and from your experience it seems they might even be hiding them. It’s clear they don’t want too many people finding out. Thanks for sharing. This is good info for others that might have been told the same thing.
Nina
I just got an email stating that Verizon has taken over Millenicom users that were using the Verizon Jetpack. They indicated that Verizon would be in touch. Have you heard of anything about this? The months coming to an end and it would be nice to know what is going on.
Yup, heard about it and just blogged in detail about it. Have a look at my latest post.
Nina