Verizon adds a new 250MB shared data plan to no applause
In what seems to be Verizon’s never ending quest to offer lesser service at a higher cost to their subscribers, today they introduced a new addition to their share everything plans that is an absolute slap in the face. 250MB worth of data for an entire month is less to laugh at and more to cry about, especially for the price. At $.08 per megabyte of data it’s an absolutely ludicrous price. For those that don’t know what that equates to, let me try and put it in perspective just how easy it would be to blow through that small allotment and start being charged overages for using more data.
According to the Netflix website, watching just one hour of HD content can use up to 2.8GB of data. So in a single hour you would have used nearly 12 times the data you are allowed each month under this new plan. I think it is an additional $10 per GB once you go over your limit, so that one hour of Netflix just cost you over $40. Let that sink in. Most of the top games in the app markets are 2+GB just to download them, so I hope you’re connected to WiFi. Even browsing in just the Facebook app alone would use well over the amount you are allowed in a month of usage. This is nothing more than a way for them to get more people to sign up for a data plan that don’t need one, and then bend them over on overages when they actually try to use it.
In 2009 when I signed up for my first smartphone you could get an unlimited data plan for $30 a month, which at the time I thought was completely outrageous. Five short years later and you have to pay $20 for a quarter of a single GB. Pure insanity. Not to mention how badly the service that now costs more has degraded over those same five years. However it appears to be due to the fact few other markets (although they are growing daily as palms are being greased and pockets lined in government) are as unregulated as the mobile telecoms as far as pricing is concerned. Just like home internet, the US is among the highest priced and lowest performing in the world. Not just by a little, but a very large margin in some cases. Because there is so little competition in the US, there is little incentive for performance to increase or prices to drop. Profit margins are the only thing getting better.
Fun facts: In South Africa this same type of plan costs about $3.
In the UK you can get a plan with unlimited minutes, texts, and data for just over $20.
Asia is so far ahead of us in every facet of the mobile spectrum there isn’t room to type it all.
I feel like the only US carrier I can confidently recommend to someone is T-Mobile, and that is only if they are in an area where their service is strong. As soon as they get their network built up stronger and further out though, then we will see some real competition. Their “Uncarrier” movement already netted them over 1.5 million new subscribers last quarter, so clearly they are doing things right. Aside them however, you’ll have to pay an exorbitant amount of money for less than stellar service to assure coverage.
End rant.
Ben Johnson
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