Verizon: Pay Full Price On Phone, Keep Unlimited Data

Responding to the controversy over the announcement that Verizon users upgrading from 3G to 4G LTE would have to drop their grandfathered unlimited data plans in order to do so, Verizon Wireless has told the Wall Street Journal that such users can keep their unlimited data plans if they pay full price for their phones when they do so.

The earlier announcement caused some turmoil and it was widely misreported that the unlimited data plan was simply ending. Verizon Wireless stopped creating new accounts on the unlimited plan many months ago, but existing subscribers were grandfathered in and allowed to retain it. Other new customers have a choice of tiered plans with different costs and data caps.

This model is becoming standard in other data services businesses. Comcast also just announced that they will experiment with new pricing plans, including a similar tiered model.

Verizon Wireless still wants to move customers from the unlimited plan to tiered plans on their new data share model, the details of which they still have not released. The new plans will allow customers to put multiple devices on a single plan with a single cap.

The specifics of the data share plans and the change to the unlimited data plan will be announced this summer.