verizon no longer cares what people do with their service. all contracts established after march 2008, are free to use any internet service they want, as much as they want.
there are no limits on data usage. it is unlimited.
there are however, overage charges that come into play beyond the first 5GB of data use per billing month.
in essence, verizon users can eat all they want, because they will be paying for it.
i make this clarification because you are giving people impression that verizon has restrictions that no longer exist.
I'm glad you clarified that. But it still needs to be said how crazy the overage fees could be.
Now, I wonder how many people realize how fast 1 MB goes by? I'm looking at my meter here and I've already used 8.2 MB this morning - and I've been on for 2 hours. I have not downloaded any pictures in emails or anything. I've only been working through emails and forum messages. And I just flipped through 3 pages on Verizon.com to see their rates.
They're now charging 25c per overage MB.
It's very difficult to control the usage... the other day, when I was trying to be an "angel" and keep my usage under the 165 MB a day... Apple tossed an update at me that day that burned 50 MB. So if I was into my overage bandwidth, that would have been $12.50 right there.
I just went to YouTube and watched 8 minutes worth of video. Add a few emails that trickled in while I was doing that, and I just burned another 15 MBs in the last few minutes. So, no... you can't play on YouTube very much without blowing your data budget for the month.
Go to iTunes and download an episode of some TV show. That'll cost you a couple of bucks from iTunes... and $87 in data usage if you're over.
I'm not a total downloading junkie by any means.. but I could very easily use 20 Gig a month (and I have been). But now, if I were on Verizon, that would cost me $3,900 for the month. No thanks.
So while it might be "all you can eat for a price", that price is way outta my ballpark.
SallyCO wrote: ...
I'm not a total downloading junkie by any means.. but I could very easily use 20 Gig a month (and I have been)...
I wonder how typical your usage is. You certainly use far more than I do.
Here is a usage report I posted last year. "For the last 31 days of usage from our trip to the northeast during May and June Sarah and I together used 1.7 GB of combined upload and download and used the connectin 91.25 hours. Note: this was 31 days of usage, not 31 consecutive days. Since there was no broadband as we traveled, we used WiFi whenever it was available. That usage was for moderating, emails, and news/weather/sports information. Waiting until WiFi was available, we did not use the air card for uploading files or pictures."
SallyCO wrote: I'm not a total downloading junkie by any means.. but I could very easily use 20 Gig a month (and I have been).
I hate to break it to you darlin' but at 20gb a month you are certainly a DL'n junkie.
I can never imagine using over a couple a gb a month but I know I'm not normal.
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I do a business. Right now, I've spent the last hour on a vendor's site buying product. My usage now is at 52 megs for today - and it's only Noon:30 here.
Some of these lists of what you can do with 5 gig are really deceptive.
I just know what I'm using... and like I said earlier... I've downloaded two songs this month and spent a total of about 2 hours on YouTube. The rest of it is just workin' on the web.
There is some chatter out there that Sprint is maybe not going to slam the business users quite so fast. (and I was told that when I called in to the business customer service) ... so maybe Sprint will realize that businesses (at least some) can't function on 5 gigs.
SallyCO wrote: I do a business. Right now, I've spent the last hour on a vendor's site buying product. My usage now is at 52 megs for today - and it's only Noon:30 here.
Some of these lists of what you can do with 5 gig are really deceptive.
I just know what I'm using... and like I said earlier... I've downloaded two songs this month and spent a total of about 2 hours on YouTube. The rest of it is just workin' on the web.
There is some chatter out there that Sprint is maybe not going to slam the business users quite so fast. (and I was told that when I called in to the business customer service) ... so maybe Sprint will realize that businesses (at least some) can't function on 5 gigs.
Sally
Hi Sally-
FWIW.
I am a Sprint EVDO user and recently was told of their new policies about the 5GB cap so I called to check into it. Seems they have realized that they cannot change contracts with current users in mid stream without running the risk of losing their customer base. As I put it to them..."if you break your contract with me, I no longer have to honor my contract with you"! They are leaving us alone on the unlimited plans as long as we don't ever quit and try to restart again.
I was told by one of their phone support people that all plans were changing to the new program so I went higher up the food chain to make sure.....and was assured that they are leaving the current customers alone on this issue! So I remain with Sprint and am happy with their EVDO service.
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I am a Sprint EVDO user and recently was told of their new policies about the 5GB cap so I called to check into it. Seems they have realized that they cannot change contracts with current users in mid stream without running the risk of losing their customer base. As I put it to them..."if you break your contract with me, I no longer have to honor my contract with you"! They are leaving us alone on the unlimited plans as long as we don't ever quit and try to restart again.
I was told by one of their phone support people that all plans were changing to the new program so I went higher up the food chain to make sure.....and was assured that they are leaving the current customers alone on this issue! So I remain with Sprint and am happy with their EVDO service.
I hope you're right.
How long ago did you have this conversation with them? I talked with them a little over 2 weeks ago - just before my current billing cycle started.
I absolutely love the service... and I was really thinking of adding two smartphones to my plan now that they have the $99 unlimited on those. But I've held back on all of it because I'm not going to sign phone contracts if they terminate me as an EVDO customer.
I guess the thing that concerns me is that they have changed their T&C to reflect something that flies in the face of what you were told.
So at the end of the day, it's very difficult to believe just whatever we are told over the phone by Sprint.
I am a Sprint EVDO user and recently was told of their new policies about the 5GB cap so I called to check into it. Seems they have realized that they cannot change contracts with current users in mid stream without running the risk of losing their customer base. As I put it to them..."if you break your contract with me, I no longer have to honor my contract with you"! They are leaving us alone on the unlimited plans as long as we don't ever quit and try to restart again.
I was told by one of their phone support people that all plans were changing to the new program so I went higher up the food chain to make sure.....and was assured that they are leaving the current customers alone on this issue! So I remain with Sprint and am happy with their EVDO service.
I hope you're right.
How long ago did you have this conversation with them? I talked with them a little over 2 weeks ago - just before my current billing cycle started.
I absolutely love the service... and I was really thinking of adding two smartphones to my plan now that they have the $99 unlimited on those. But I've held back on all of it because I'm not going to sign phone contracts if they terminate me as an EVDO customer.
I guess the thing that concerns me is that they have changed their T&C to reflect something that flies in the face of what you were told.
So at the end of the day, it's very difficult to believe just whatever we are told over the phone by Sprint.
This conversation took place less than two weeks ago. Customer service actually transferred me into the department where you would go if you were cancelling your service.....and they assure me that I will still have the unlimited service as long as I don't cancel it. When I log into my account online it tells me that I have unlimited also.
I had a need to upgrade my aircard as I dropped mine (PCMCIA) into a dessert dish that was soaking in the sink and I could not find anyone willing to test it in their computer for fear of crashing a motherboard. So if you know of someone who likes to take risks... I have an EVDO broadband card that smells like snicker bars/ice cream that they can try!! I digress..... That was the start of my inquiry anyhow, and in the end I was assured that everything will stay the same as what I contracted for. My wife and I use a router with my aircard so I get concerned with usage....not to mention I don't have a great way of knowing how much I have used or not so I didn't want my plan to be changed on me either!
I had some time to kill yesterday so I decided to call Sprint. I went into the "retention" department (which you referred to as the area where you would go if you're talking about canceling service).
I got a wildly different answer than you did. I was nice about it all.. .after all, I'm thinking of getting two Treos on Sprint and I just want some reassurance that they will leave my plan alone.
At one point, the guy said "I can see you've been over the last two months, so I'm not sure if you're going to get FINED or not". (now there's a new one!)
Again, there are big discussions about this on evdoforums.com . And basically, it's very apparent that if you ask 5 different customer service reps what's going on, you'll get 4.5 different answers.
Before being transferred to retention, the first CSR that I talked to told me that all services (including phones) were going to be capped at 5 gig. I asked her if she was absolutely sure of that, and she said "yes".
Well.. if you go to Sprint's site and check out their "simply everything" plan, it is still being sold as unlimited data for the phone.
So... it's a******shoot. There is no consistent answer here - much less anything in writing that would reassure me that they aren't going to shut me off.
53 minutes (mostly on hold) wasted yesterday.
And.. while I know some people think that 5 gig is some enormous amount of data (especially if you look at Sprints newest justification chart on the page where you select the service), it's really not if you use your email to send pictures around, etc.
Just this morning, I did NO downloading, but I had a customer on the phone for 2 hours so I was grabbing reasonable sized images off my vendors site and creating emails for her to show her some items that she was interested in ordering.
I used 60 megs this morning. And remember, the daily allotment is only 165.
For the most basic web users, 165 megs is maybe plenty. But it's not adequate for some business users.
Also.. while I had that guy on from retention, I had him check my usage. He didn't know how to convert bytes to gigs. After teaching him how to cut through the math, Sprint has me down for about 3 gigs more usage this month than what my meter says I've used. That sort of discrepancy bites into a 5 gig allotment pretty fast.
I'm really trying to figure out my options at this point. I hate the idea of getting landline service on top of the $60 a month I pay for my card. I have been trying to find out what the Wimax possibilities are - and seems that could still be a ways off.
There is a joke around evdoforums about some of us being the canary in the coalmine. We'll know when there is a problem when we all of a sudden don't have service.
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