Verizon To Pummel Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plan Users With $20 Price Hike

Most of these carriers would certainly prefer these customers switch to one of their tiered plans, often trying to lure them with cheaper prices in exchange for low data caps, but it seem Verizon has another plan altogether: increase their bill by $20. Depending on your contract status, you should then have 60 days to decide if you want to accept the increase or change to another plan. Which they charge $10 per gigabyte over the data limits that they have available, and for an unlimited data user, that could add up pretty quickly.

The only other competitors that still offer unlimited data plans in the U.S. are T-Mobile, which costs 80$ per month and Sprint, which recently raised their plan to $70. While this sounds likes like a jerk move (and it is), the change allegedly only affects roughly one percent of Verizon’s user base. For customers determined to remain on the unlimited plan, Verizon will now let them purchase new smartphones through its monthly device payment plan; previously, you could only buy phones outright at their full retail cost.

Update: Here is Verizon’s statement. However, as soon as your contract is up and you start going with month-to-month service, the $49.99 pricing will come into play.

“As data use continues to grow, we continuously evaluate the price of our plans and service. That value is underpinned by our $100 billion+ network investment since 2000, which powers the reliability of a Verizon customer’s experience”.

Edit: Looks like The Verge was in a few minutes before us.