Verizon Brings Back Unlimited Data Plans – With Some Catches - RV-Dreams Community Forum

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Verizon Brings Back Unlimited Data Plans – With Some Catches

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

This whole story is blowing up all over the internet, but not getting any action on this forum. RVMobileInternet.com also found a really interesting AT&T option for rural areas, $60 a month for 250GB (yes "GB") - https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/atts-wireless-home-phone-internet-rural-plan-250gb-for-60month/.

Anyway the cellular internet landscape is changing daily since T-Mobile and Sprint are making changes due to the new Unlimited Plan from Verizon. I expect something from AT&T soon, maybe getting rid of the need to be a DirecTV customer for unlimited, but who knows? I also expect Verizon to make changes to their new plan as they get feedback. It is an exciting time.

Howard · Host

Wrote a Journal entry today - Big News In World of Mobile Internet This Week - on both these recent events.

At this point Verizon doesn't have a good handle on the details of their own plan. Clearly, their people haven't been trained properly.

The AT&T deal is certainly intriguing.

Glenn West · RV-Dreams Family Member

We just switched to Verizon from AT&T. We constantly get poor service away for cities. Park we are in is in Baytown TX and service was in and out. Verizon is working good.

Howard · Host

Already hearing about push-back on the AT&T deal. Some are able to get it and some are being turned down if their billing address isn't in one of the "rural" areas covered ... contrary to assurances of personnel. This was posted today in the article Bill linked to in his second post in this thread.

NOTE: 2/17 - We are hearing some reports that when folks call in, they're being told a memo went out this morning saying sales rep are not to sign new customers up for this plan unless their billing address is in one of the intended markets.

BiggarView · RV-Dreams Family Member

CNBC is reporting ATT is rolling out this plan nation-wide. Hopefully they iron out all the details quickly.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

BiggarView wrote:
CNBC is reporting ATT is rolling out this plan nation-wide. Hopefully they iron out all the details quickly.
Edit: I couldn't find any recent news about AT&T on cnbc.com, so it must be just on the live broadcast.

-- Edited by bjoyce on Friday 17th of February 2017 09:37:00 PM

Hdrider · RV-Dreams Family Member

It's all very interesting for sure. I stopped off at 2 separate Verizon retail locations today while out and about and both said to get the discount for auto pay it had to be through a debit card or checking account. I think I will call Verizon tomorrow and see what they say even though it does state this on there web site but it can't hurt to try.
We also been getting a loyalty discount because of a screw up on there part some time back, I will see if that rolls over as well.
We pay $154 before taxes & fee's and our loyalty discount for 30gigs (did the double up deal a couple years back), 1 smart phone and our mifi. I was quoted today Unlimited plus the phone line and the mifi line for $105 (if we do the auto pay). That's a $49 per month savings if we keep our old Samsung 3 phone. But they offered a Samsung 7 for $200 out of pocket and $27 per month for 24 months and they would give us a $200 in store credit to offset the out of pocket but we are not a "have to have the newest stuff" couple so I'd rather enjoy the savings more than a new phone I think, at least as long as our 4 year old phone lasts. And I think we could buy a Samsung 7 cheaper just paying for it someplace.
I agree, I don't think things are done changing and I bet more things change sooner than later.

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

Lee called on this deal 2 days after it was announced and they had already closed the loophole. They told him our home address had to be in one of their rural designated zip codes AND the tone and tenor of the conversation changed pretty abruptly after Lee asked about it. We have been with AT&T from the beginning and rarely have had connection issues, so this would be wonderful for us because we are also very heavy data users, both for work and personal. Hopefully market pressure will continue to drive companies in the direction of cheap data. Will have to wait and see but for right now we are hanging onto a grandfathered double data plan we have had for 2 years.

Trace

Howard · Host

Tracy,

There are still a lot of folks (full-time RVers) getting signed up on the AT&T plan even if their mailing addresses not in the designated rural zones. Sometimes they just have to find the right service rep, but if you check out the Full-time RVers Group on Facebook, a lot of people are getting it accomplished.

Dutch · RV-Dreams Family Member

AT&T first accepted my order since my upstate NY billing address ZIP was in a designated zone, but then canceled it when they saw my FL shipping address. I was able to place a new order though, using my billing/mail forwarding address for the shipping address. It arrived there yesterday, and will ship out today to my FL address. Other than the delay in getting it, the only downside is the additional shipping cost. It's worth it to get the $60 250GB plan though.

DRV · RV-Dreams Family Member

bjoyce wrote:
This whole story is blowing up all over the internet, but not getting any action on this forum. RVMobileInternet.com also found a really interesting AT&T option for rural areas, $60 a month for 250GB (yes "GB") - https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/atts-wireless-home-phone-internet-rural-plan-250gb-for-60month/.
Anyway the cellular internet landscape is changing daily since T-Mobile and Sprint are making changes due to the new Unlimited Plan from Verizon. I expect something from AT&T soon, maybe getting rid of the need to be a DirecTV customer for unlimited, but who knows? I also expect Verizon to make changes to their new plan as they get feedback. It is an exciting time.

The ATT deal must be more popular than ATT can handle. I signed up last Thurs for ATT 250GB. My zip code was accepted. The ATT rep said the equipment would ship next day. Yesterday ATT sent me an email saying they could not ship equipment til 26 March. That I could cancel the order if I did not want to wait.

Dutch · RV-Dreams Family Member

I've seen a number of mentions on various forums in the last few days referring to orders showing a backorder status. I hope everyone that's ordered does finally get their Homebase though, it's been working great for us here in Florida so far.

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

As an update AT&T came out with a mobile unlimited plan on Thursday and we have taken advantage of it. It's 22GB per device and no automatic throtttling when you go over on your wifi hotspot, instead you are subject to "network management" which means they may throttle you if the tower is congested. (There is automatic throttling when you go over on your other devices. We have held onto the same grandfathered plan for over two years because internet is a big part of our business model and our television solution and finally Lee was willing to pull the trigger on this deal. It reduced our monthly costs from $360 down to $185 (2 phones, Ipad, and wifi hotspot) so we were willing to take the risk. So far so good, but will see what happens when we start hitting the thresholds later in the month.

Trace

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Track https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/ for all the changes as they happen. The rural AT&T plan only works for certain states and we don't qualify. The other interesting option is the $20/month AT&T Connected Car plan, which uses a wireless hotspot (mifi/jetpack) called a Mobley that hooks to the car's OBDII port. With an adapter you can use this outside a car, but it is subject to the 22GB network optimization. AT&T did change their plans and on the Unlimited Plus plan a mobile hotspot device will get the full 22GB, unlike the other carriers which are limiting all hotspots to 10GB per month. But you will need a phone on the plan, so it will cost you $145 for one phone and mobile hotspot. Of course this could all change tomorrow.

Edit: Trying to get the fonts and colors decent after pasting from a website that messed them up.

-- Edited by bjoyce on Monday 6th of March 2017 09:19:40 AM

-- Edited by bjoyce on Monday 6th of March 2017 09:22:16 AM

DRV · RV-Dreams Family Member

Dutch wrote:
I've seen a number of mentions on various forums in the last few days referring to orders showing a backorder status. I hope everyone that's ordered does finally get their Homebase though, it's been working great for us here in Florida so far.

My ATT home base was delivered last Friday. This was a nice surprise after ATT said that my estimated delivery would be 26 March. Maybe ATT had some order cancellations.

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

The plan we got was unlimited data and we did NOT need to get the rural plan. This is a standard unlimited data plan that they came out with. And yes I agree Technomadia are definitely the experts, all I am saying is we got an unlimited plan without jumping through any hoops and it's working great.

Trace

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Do any of the plans provide unlimited data on a MiFi device? Our phones are AT&T but we're currently paying way too much for our 30 GB/month Verizon mifi…I'll eventually get around to stopping by the store and checking but figured somebody might already know. The first day it was out it looked like only 10GB for MiFi before getting throttled.

-- Edited by Neil and Connie on Thursday 9th of March 2017 09:16:29 AM

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Neil and Connie wrote:
Do any of the plans provide unlimited data on a MiFi device? Our phones are AT&T but we're currently paying way too much for our 30 GB/month Verizon mifi…I'll eventually get around to stopping by the store and checking but figured somebody might already know. The first day it was out it looked like only 10GB for MiFi before getting throttled.

-- Edited by Neil and Connie on Thursday 9th of March 2017 09:16:29 AM

AT&T allows up to 22GB per mifi before they will slow you down if the tower is busy. The other carriers all do this at 10GB, including Verizon. They all allow up to 10GB of hotspotting per phone before slowing you down and they will slow down the phone hotspot a lot.

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

In the last 9 days we have used over 100 GB on our ATT hot spot and so far have not been throttled. To be clear we are in a remote area with minimal cell traffic, but it's a pretty auspicious beginning.

Trace

DRV · RV-Dreams Family Member

Camper Chronicles wrote:
In the last 9 days we have used over 100 GB on our ATT hot spot and so far have not been throttled. To be clear we are in a remote area with minimal cell traffic, but it's a pretty auspicious beginning.

Trace

I have used 30 GB on my ATT hot spot without throttling. However I want to use no more than 60 per week to not exceed the 250 limit. What is the cost to go over the limit?

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks Bill…I expect Verizon will eventually match that 22GB number as well as the plan and pricing for competitive reasons…I'll run by there and see what they might do for me. We deliberately got a Verizon MiFi since we have AT&T phones…although each has stronger and weaker signal areas we've not seen any where both were bad except for places where there just wasn't any phone signal at all.

Dutch · RV-Dreams Family Member

DRV wrote:
I have used 30 GB on my ATT hot spot without throttling. However I want to use no more than 60 per week to not exceed the 250 limit. What is the cost to go over the limit?

On the AT&T rural 250GB plan, the overage cost is $10 per 10GB. So you could use 300GB before it would pay to switch to the 500GB plan.

jayc · RV-Dreams Family Member

I just got n email from Verizon warning me that I will be limited to 3G speeds if I continue to go over the 10 GB "limit" even though we have the unlimited plan.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

jayc wrote:
I just got n email from Verizon warning me that I will be limited to 3G speeds if I continue to go over the 10 GB "limit" even though we have the unlimited plan.

Yes, Verizon is now enforcing the 10GB hotspot/Jetpack limit - https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/alert-verizon-now-enforcing-10gb-hotspot-limit-with-new-unlimited-plan/ . I was hoping they would match AT&T on mobile hotspots (Jetpack/MiFi) and let them go to 22GB before network prioritization, but they decided not to.

We are still on the "New Verizon Plan" and now we expect to stay on it since we routinely use more than 20GB on our Jetpack and hotspotting the phones is a hassle. Why sell nice Jetpacks and then limit them?

-- Edited by bjoyce on Tuesday 18th of April 2017 08:34:01 PM

BiggarView · RV-Dreams Family Member

....Why sell nice Jetpacks and then limit them?

By strangling you, they hope you will cough up more money for a larger plan. Always follow the money. Either they will have to copy ATT or, ATT will downgrade theirs just because they can. One can hope that competition will continue to drive down data pricing, but then the amount of data you consume continues to go up. Streaming 4K video (unheard of just 10 years ago) is becoming de rigeur these days... easy to blow out even 22GB limits.

JMHO, Brian

RonC · RV-Dreams Family Member

Neil and Connie wrote:
Do any of the plans provide unlimited data on a MiFi device? Our phones are AT&T but we're currently paying way too much for our 30 GB/month Verizon mifi…I'll eventually get around to stopping by the store and checking but figured somebody might already know. The first day it was out it looked like only 10GB for MiFi before getting throttled.

-- Edited by Neil and Connie on Thursday 9th of March 2017 09:16:29 AM

Neil ... I have a Verizon MiFi hotspot also, but I also have an AT&T "wireless home phone with Internet". That's a mouthful, but it is effectively a hot spot. Data is pretty cheap ... I have a 50 GB per month plan for $112.82 (taxes and fees included). It's obscure, and you have to look hard to find it, but it works great. With both devices, we're able to pick the fastest one for our internet depending on where we are.

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks Ron…I will check that AT&T option out…and am also going to talk to Verizon and see what they'll do for me (if anything). We're on contract until November but perhaps they'll upgrade my plan in order to get me to not leave in November. Our 30 GB plan is around $200 total and with all of the new 'unlimited' plans now available there might be interested in doing something…although they are a phone company so I'm really not expecting either customer service or enticement out of them.

RonC · RV-Dreams Family Member

Our Verizon MiFi is similarly priced. The AT&T hot spot data is a better deal price wise, but often the Verizon is faster. No perfect solution yet.

cpaulsen · RV-Dreams Family Member

bjoyce wrote:
jayc wrote:
I just got n email from Verizon warning me that I will be limited to 3G speeds if I continue to go over the 10 GB "limit" even though we have the unlimited plan.
Yes, Verizon is now enforcing the 10GB hotspot/Jetpack limit - https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/alert-verizon-now-enforcing-10gb-hotspot-limit-with-new-unlimited-plan/ . I was hoping they would match AT&T on mobile hotspots (Jetpack/MiFi) and let them go to 22GB before network prioritization, but they decided not to.
We are still on the "New Verizon Plan" and now we expect to stay on it since we routinely use more than 20GB on our Jetpack and hotspotting the phones is a hassle. Why sell nice Jetpacks and then limit them?

We have the unlimited plan and we have no limit on our JetPack......in fact we used 50 gigs this last month with no problems.
-- Edited by bjoyce on Tuesday 18th of April 2017 08:34:01 PM