Verizon Wireless just launched their unlimited calling plans in the United States starting at $99.99 where subscribers pay one flat rate to place and receive unlimited calls. All in all, it’s not THAT great of a deal, but there are some benefits to what they are offering. Below is the graph which outlines the three unlimited plans available and the prices for each:
Notice that the basic plan includes unlimited calling for $99.99 but doesn’t include messaging, and data sent or received will cost $1.99 per MB. Then you move up to the Select Plan for $119.99 which includes the unlimited messaging and calling to anyone on any network in the U.S., but data sent or received is still $1.99 per MB. Many of you would probably want the unlimited data which would end up costing you $139.99 per month. When you compare that to Sprint’s unlimited plan which includes Web, email and messaging for $119.99 (although the plan is not available everywhere), Verizon’s Premium Plan doesn’t sound so great.
We mentioned that there are some benefits to what Verizon is offering, and the biggest is simply that these unlimited plans really simplify pricing plans and could influence other carriers to simplify their plans as well. Analyst Craig Moffett says that this is a blow to confusing pricing plans. He says it’s like when Sprint introduced flat-rate long distance calling in the 90′s for landline phones and shortly after, everybody else followed. While Verizon’s offer isn’t THAT great, it’s a step in the right direction towards easier plans for consumers to choose from.
If some of you were asked to come up with the perfect plan, what would it include? Our guess, knowing our readers, is that it would probably consist of unlimited data but limited calling minutes. For Ryan and I, it seems as though we use our phones more for data than we do for calling and talking each month, so a limited or no data plan with unlimited calling wouldn’t serve us well. What Verizon is offering would be beneficial to businessmen and women who need to be on the phone for long periods of time each day, but for the frequent web user, the plans aren’t ideal.
For more details about the plans, we recommend checking out Verizon’s website.
Source: Engadget
Whoa, that’s expensive. You can get unlimited calling to landlines and phones using the same provider + unlimited data (fair use) for about €30-40 in the Netherlands. Indeed this sounds more like a plan for business(wo)men.
Looking at those prices they are quite large, especially for the family share plans. While it seems a good first step, I hope the pricing improves over time.
It looks like to me that cellphone services, like all other technologies, are offering more for the money instead of dropping their prices. I think it’s good that these unlimited plans have emerged, because now they can start dropping the prices on them over time.
It’s alot of money for a plan. If they could do alot better when you ad xtra lines that would be nice. Lets all hope the lower the prices
Adding the extra lines is definitely the deal killer with these plans, but they can’t charge just a little bit more for each line because friends would start getting family plans. When you have to share anytime minutes you’re a lot less likely to share a plan with a friend.