About damn time! Verizon kills service contracts
 

Sucks that if you're under contract that you're stuck at $4p until it's up. I still have a year and like 4 months left. Oh well.

Thank you T-Mobile.

BDT

I'm due for an upgrade, and was going to wait until the new iPhone comes out before deciding what new phone to get.

Does this mean if I want to upgrade, I can't be part of my family plan anymore?

Sounds great until you think about how much phones cost you when you're not being subsidized.

Yeah. Isn't a 6 plus like $900? But it at least gives you options to make your plan cheaper.

True but part of that cost is BECAUSE they are subsidized. Get rid of subsidies and the market corrects downward and you should see prices drop. May slow the release of super high end flagships but we are reaching a point where there isn't much benefit to one anyway.

Under the revamped system, there are no single-line options or family plans. Verizon will focus its efforts promoting four choices with varying amounts of data. (They all come with unlimited voice and text messages.) The "small" bucket will offer 1 gigabyte of data for $30 a month, the "medium" will get 3GB of data for $45, "large" gets 6GB of data for $60 and "x-large" gets 12GB for $80. As with its previous plans, the data can be shared among devices and accounts. As there are no contracts, customers can switch between plans each month. Beyond the fee for the data, Verizon also charges an "access" fee to connect the device. It will cost $20 a month to connect a smartphone, $10 to connect a tablet or "Jetpack" portable Wi-Fi hotspot, and $5 for a connected device like a smartwatch.

Overpriced piece of shit plan.

Seems like the phones really are not subsidized much anymore but the cost just passed along by a more expensive monthly contract. Still the premium Apple and Samsung phones are $650+ and wonder how many just prefer paying a bit more a month vs. shelling out the cost of the phone upfront.

ill be screwed when I need a new phone. Lol

Better than what I currently have through Verizon. I pay $45 for unlimited talk and text with 500MB data. That is for a G3 phone. I moved to a G4 phone and they raised it $10.

Holy shit!!! $20 per month just to use a smart phone on the $30 service plan that you can get everywhere else for gasp, only $30 total? JFC verizon.

I got a G5 under this "Edge" and they are giving a $25 credit on the smartphone fee. My bill went down $10 a month.

And I just renewed my damn 2 year contract a couple months ago. Wonder what this means for me?

I'd rather sign up for a two year contract than pay an additional monthly fee for a phone.

I guess I'm just skeptical that Verizon is making this change out of the goodness of their hearts because they want to save consumers money. One way or another, people will pay more this way.

im currently on the verizon edge program and they give you a 25 dollar credit to your line for each line on data plans above 6gb im pretty sure. so my phone I am getting for free all i paid was the taxes on the total cost of the phone.

We switched to T-Mobile about 4 months ago. We switched to T-mobile so Verizon would stop raping us on data charges. T-Mobile also bought out our contract to the tune of $600. We pay about $20 more per month total for unlimited everything and we both have the iPhone 6 compared to unlimited talk/text and 2 GBs data with Verizon and shitty phones. **** VERIZON.

Oh yeah, typically. But at least it is closer to paying for what you are getting.

Umm..

Most carriers are doing this now and it is beneficial to the users..

Say the old way of you buying a phone on a normal contract. You are stuck paying the same, even once you have paid of the subsidy.

Now your option is buy the phone outright like Europeans do and have a cheap monthly plan, or have the divide out the phone cost into payments, once paid off the plan goes back down unless you upgrade.

How has the service/coverage been with t-mobile? I've been wanting to switch from Verizon and considered T-Mobile but I'm hesitant

I'd do Tmobile in a heartbeat here if the signal didn't suck.

Just set up my new account. I've been due for an upgrade since June, just didn't have the income to get the phone I wanted. I just switched to this plan yesterday. I am paying about the same, while paying for 2 iPhone 6 plus and 2 more GB/ month, as I was for just the contract. My gf getting a 22% discount from her job certainly is assisting in that aspect:D

Jesus, Wal Mart offers a plan that's $25 unlimited talk and text, $5 extra for 1G web (If you add extra lines then each line is $5 off). So you'd be paying $30 for what you have now with twice the data. They use the T-Mobile network.

Probably, but if you own your phone you can give them the finger and walk away.

Live in Phoenix and it's great. Took a trip to northern states and we went roaming and to AT&T for data and it limited us here.

Phone companies are moving to this model because the FTC was on their asses about how they characterized the early termination fees. This is certainly more transparent, but in the end it's probably a wash from a financial perspective.

They still offer two year contracts for existing customers but it usually makes more sense to do the device payment plan regardless. The plans are pretty competitive compared to the other 3 big carriers except T-Mobile. T-Mobile is killing it with their data plans right now. The service is shit however. Pay more for what you get. If all you did tho was live in a major city it might be good enough

I would switch to tmobile in a heartbeat for their family plan but the service is just horrible in my city unless you live by the interstate.

The only reason I have Verizon is service. I had Sprint a yr ago and was staying with my sister in a small town in NE Ohio. Sprint was awful and my sister has Verizon. Nothing else worked in the area. I switched. I'm still in Ohio, but in the Dayton area now. T-Mobile works great here. Had it here 4 yrs ago. I'll probably go back to them or Straight Talk when the contract is up.

The contracts of 3 of my 4 lines are up around Christmas. I planned on renewing so we could all get new phones at no/low cost. What does this mean for us now?

It means you're either buying the phones at full price or you're going to have to add them to your plan with a monthly cost. Unless I'm missing something.

But my bill should be dropping a bit according to that price chart. Unless I'm missing something too.

Sounds like everyone is jumping out on the contracts thing. Just read yesterday Sprint is going to leased (or purchased) phones with no contracts as well.

I think that just leaves AT&T that is still clinging to the old model.

I have Verizon. Had two lines with contracts that ended. I still have the ability to upgrade those lines 2 yr contracts adding in a $40 upgrade fee for both lines. Which means a Samsung S6 will cost me a one time fee( don't forget, you still have to pay a line access fee each month) of around $289 for a 2 yr contract. Or I can pay nothing upfront and pay 24/month for 24 months, which equals out to $576.

Went online and saved myself $70/month. I have four lines, and the connection/access fees were reduced by $50 for switching. Then I looked at my data usage and realized I was buying more than I really needed, so I reduced my plan from 10 GB to 6 GB. If I need to switch back up to the 12 GB plan I can do that at any time.

So I'm going to save $840/year. I don't feel any pressing need to upgrade phones every two years, so that works fine for me.

Were you out of your contract?

Yes, my two year contracts had lapsed already. As I understand it, you can switch plans, but the line access fees will remain at the contract rate until the contract ends, at which point you get the reduced access fee price of the new contract, which is half the old rate.

Yeah, I just went and chatted with an agent about that. I switched from 10 gb to 12 gb because it's the same cost. I've got a year and a half before I can get to the new pricing.

My line access fees are going to go up from $10 to $20 per line.

I have used 33.9 gb data so far this period.

How much would that cost under Verizon? Under United (small local company) it costs $40.

How the **** are you using that much data?

Streaming radio while at work.


I guess, that's all I can think of.

More than $120

JFC dude. Thats a lot of bandwidth for a phone. Most services cut you off at 5gb or severely slow you down.

"Yeah honey.....redtube.com is sort of like pandora, but better. That must be why I'm using so much bandwidth. "


:evil:

JFC! Do you not have WIFI at home?

Can't use wi-fi?

Everyone has passwords. I am in a new house every 2-5 days.

I own a wood floor installation and refinishing business.

I see. That would suck.

Yea that's porn. Either that or you're hotspotting your phone.

Hotspotting and streaming TuneIn radio.


Ever since Alex Van Pelt and Colin Cowherd left ESPN radio (listened to them on SiriusXM), I have been streaming Dan Patrick and Jim Rome, with a little 610 and 810am KC radio mixed in.


Unlimited plan, who gives a shit? I have friends that don't have home high speed internet, but use their cell to hotspot LTE 4G for everything.

I've got unlimited everything with Verizon and I want to keep it that way, so I'm going in this weekend to see how the changes will impact the pricing. If it's just going to even out with the phones, that's fine with me.

How do you have unlimited data?

It's business as usual with existing customers on Verizon. You haven't been able to keep your unlimited data on an upgrade for a few years now. You either buy the phone full retail or do an upgrade on a different phone on the account.

You've still got an unlimited data account with Verizon?

Never upgraded. Wish I wouldn't have. It was awesome.

I insisted on them keeping us on that plan, so we're one of the very few accounts to still be 'grandfathered'.

I've been able to keep unlimited data even with upgrades.

Yes, to this point.

I have a grandfathered unlimited data Verizon account and my line is cheaper than my wife's.

Haven't read entire thread, but T-Mobile started doing something like this I think. Where you basically pay a little each month for the cost of the phone. It ends up being like a lease. I'd rather just pay $200-$300 up front and sign a 2-year agreement, own the phone, and go from there. I did the math and it appeared to be quite alot cheaper to go that route. I don't know if this is a good thing.

It's not but people will be fine with it because they want the ability to switch phones every year and get the newest technology.

Or keep their phone forever and not pay the subsidy.

Or be able to shitcan those mother****ers mid-contract if I deem it necessary.

Or if my phone can't un**** itself after I've had it for a year and 8 months.

Or.... Or.... Or....

Two years is pretty much perfect for me. Hope Sprint doesn't go this route. Im fine with paying more upfront as long as its cheaper in the long run for me

Sprint is phasing out contracts at the end of the year.

I've been with T-mobile for a number of years now and I'm looking at changing. The coverage is fine in KC, but if you leave town it sucks. I have family in Columbia and we visit once a month or so and as soon as we leave the metro area our signal goes dead. NOTHING all the way to Columbia. And then we barely get a signal.

So I checked out coverage maps and it seems like AT&T has the best coverage for where we travel. I chatted with them yesterday and they are expensive! It would cost us $190/month to get what we're getting right now with Tmobile for $110/month...and that is with 33% less data. Verizon is a little more affordable, but they said our phones (Nexus 5) won't work on their network so we'd need to buy all new phones. No thanks.

It looks like we're stuck with Tmobile for now.

Try Ting.com

Looking now, thanks.

The strange thing is, judging by tmobile's coverage map, we should have an excellent signal all the way down I-70.