Most Verizon Wireless customers on unlimited-data plans won't miss them

Verizon Wireless's tiered-pricing data plans for smart phones went into effect last July, and new customers were no longer able to sign up for unlimited plans. Existing customers who had such plans were able to hang onto them—but that's about to end, according to Verizon CFO Fran Shammo. New data we've obtained, though, suggests that most of Verizon's smart-phone subscribers don't really need unlimited data.

Last week, Verizon Wireless announced that unlimited-plan customers upgrading to phones that run on the carrier's 4G LTE network will have to sign up for the company's upcoming data-share plan (pricing to be announced). The only way to keep an unlimited plan? "Customers who choose to purchase phones at full retail price and are currently on an unlimited smartphone data plan will be able to keep that plan," read the company's blog post. Thus, customers who renew their contracts and purchase (much less expensive) subsidized phones will lose the unlimited-data plan.

But new data supplied by Validas, a company that tracks wireless data coverage, suggests that most Verizon customers who currently have grandfathered unlimited data plans will not be much affected by losing them. After analyzing over 6,000 lines, says Validas:

First, in terms of bandwidth, just .04% [of Verizon Wireless unlimited-data customers] will likely demand more data than will be available with the largest 22GB/$100 4G LTE tiered plan. So, as long as you're not a top .04 % data hog, it's unlikely that a tiered plan necessarily means you lose the same kind of access you enjoyed with unlimited. Second, in terms of cost, users consuming over 2GB monthly (corresponding to only the top 5.05 % of subscribers) may face a pricing increase because the tiered plan required to cover their data demands (above 2GB) costs more than their unlimited service did ($29.99 in many cases). So, the 95 % of users below the 2GB mark can probably continue on with their pre-tiered usage levels on the 2GB/$30 3G or 4GB/$30 4G LTE plans and feel little appreciable difference.

This jibes with a Consumer Reports survey of readers last year, which suggested that "although the average amount of data consumed each month by smart-phone owners appears to be on the rise, many data users eat up far fewer megabytes than you might expect." And our recent analysis AT&T tiered plans, also based on Validas data, concluded that many of AT&T's unlimited subscribers could actually save money by moving to a tiered plan.

Of course, as network speeds increase and phones themselves become more and more powerful, data use in general is on the rise. Most carriers (with the exception of Sprint) now throttle heavy data users. So far, though, only heavy data users enrolled in Verizon's unlimited-data plan are subject to throttling. No word on whether throttling will extend to tiered-pricing customers as yet.

Verizon Wireless to end unlimited data plan [USA Today]

Related:
Smart-phone data nibblers outnumber data hogs
CR analysis: Tiered data plans won't change bills for most Verizon smart-phone users
Nearly half of AT&T subscribers would pay less by switching to a metered plan

—Carol Mangis