I just purchased the Droid and I read in a few places online that the unlimited data plan has a 5gb monthly limit. I can't find that statement on Verizon's site however and the gas gauge under my Verizon account shows it as unlimited with no indication of a cap. Anyone know if this is true or perhaps only applies to certain plans? Thanks!
The truth is yes, there is a 5GB cap on "unlimited" data. This "silent" cap is the roughly the same for the big 4. You'd really have to be downloading some major-league stuff to hit that limit. A call to CS will verify this rule, even though it isn't clearly stated on the Verizon site or your usage statistics. It should be stated in the (laborious to read) Terms and Conditions of your contract.
Mike, I have my card plugged into a router 24/7 and share up to 7 pcs on it. So ya, it's easy to exceed 5gb. That's what I miss about Alltel...truly unlimited!! No hidden nothing!! So hopefully Verizon will get the message when all it's Alltel users move to another company due to the cap and really crappy phones! But for now, I'm still with Verizon on my Alltel plan.
I hate to break it to you, but Alltel was the last company with no cap on it's air cards. There may be a few small regional carriers left that offer unlimited, but VZW, AT&T, Tmob, and Sprint all have 5 gig plans. To the OP, that plan on your droid is unlimited, it's only data cards or tethering that has the 5 gig limit. Now that being said, I run about 2 gig a month on my Blackberry, and that's with streaming audio and video to it, so if you could find some way to blow through 10 gigs a month (though very unlikely) on your phone itself you may get a nasty gram from big red saying you must be doing something that violates the TOS, but there are no overages for exceeding 5 gigs on a phone.
The data is unlimited for web browsing and email from the phone. The 5GB cap applies to the data cards and phones used as modems (a.k.a. tethering)
Why would Alltel customers leave? If they had an unlimited data plan on their aircard line, they still have it. I see those lines everyday and no caps were placed on them. New activations, yes they have the data cap but not existing alltel customers who had an aircard prior to conversion.
Bryan.....you are correct that If I don't make any changes I can stay unlimited. But at the cost of new hardware and faster speeds (currently averaging 400k with my current card). Nor can I JUST change my phone lines to Verizon to get new hardware without having to upgrade my data card too. That's no way to treat your customers. That is why Alltel was awesome and I never had any problems other than speed with them. Maybe Verizon needs a wake-up call from its customers. They acquired a loyal customer base...now THEY need to step up and take the high road here! The increased ETF charges and accidental web browsing charges are way overboard! I'm a huge Windows fanboy...but I understand why Mac customers are loyal...Apple takes care of their customers.....is it too much to ask my wireless company to be show some respect to a customer who pays over 4k per year?
Not quite true. You can upgrade your phones but not touch your aircard line...unless you decide to upgrade it as well, but then that is YOUR call. People do this everyday. I help them do it so I know of what I speak. Yes, VZW has upped it's ETF, but only on advance devices where they stand to lose more if the customer cancels early. The entire point is cost recovery, and also to stop the dealers and individual who buy the phone at discount, cancel very quickly and pay the ETF, then sell the phone on ebay for more that what they paid + the ETF they had to shell out. Sure the ETF is more on those devices, but does it really matter when you buy the phone? Do you buy the phone so you can bail out early? No.
Bryan, thank you for your reply. I just confirmed this morning via my brother upgrading his two phones and NOT having to upgrade his Alltel wireless plan. BUT...I'm saying that Verizon SHOULD give us a unlimited plan. Can I buy the wireless card outright ($170.00 vs FREE) to get the faster Verizon hardware and keep my same plan?
The simple fact is that 3G wireless networks aren't really designed for the kind of load you're putting on it with 7 PCs. That's what wired broadband is for. As spectrum becomes more scarce and data usage goes up, I think it's more likely these caps will continue. Femtocells indicate that wireless providers are looking to offload traffic to a wired backbone rather than provide an alternative to traditional broadband.
crood...you must live in the "big" city.....welcome to my world...rural America!!! Our choices are: dial-up, satellite, wireless (DTN), wireless (Alltel). No cable modem or DSL!!! This is the stinking 21st century last time I checked. $60.00/month PLUS taxes ought to buy you a minimum of 2mb dl. with unlimited useage!! What it comes down to is excess greed of Verizon. Bryan...still waiting for an answer to my question regarding buying the wireless card outright......
Your circumstances don't change the fact that wireless networks aren't designed for your usage patterns. I find people use the term "corporate greed" as an intellectual copout. Unless you have inside knowledge of Verizon's balance sheets, you're just name calling. The simple fact is that rural areas have and always will be the last areas that utilities address. You choose to live where you do knowing there are tradeoffs (cleaner air, more space, etc). Companies charge for service and layout what that service is in a contract. If you don't like it, you take your business elsewhere or do without. If enough people choose to do so, a company can choose to change it's policies.
And wait you shall...I don't know the answer. All the stuff I've seen says if you keep your Alltel issued card and plan you're fine. Without actually trying to order the card and seeing if it forces you into a plan change, I can't answer your question. Why don't you try? The worst that could happen would be you being told you'd have to change your plan, and you could cancel the entire project with no harm no foul. My opinion is that you will have to change to a capped plan.
I have a question for you since you help people with this business. We went to Verizon on 11-20-09 to just upgrade our alltel phone plan and add a line to the phone plan too. We had a separate contract with alltel for our wireless modem. The people at the Verizon store insisted that we had to "upgrade" our wireless card to verizon also...that it absolutely could not stay alltel since we were changing all our phones to Verizon. They assured us that the modem from Verizon would be better and faster than our Alltel modem. We have since discovered that our Verizon modem is a complete failure compared to the Alltel modem. My husband has spent hours on the phone with tech support trying to make the modem better but no success. We have download speeds that are slower than our upload speeds!!! Our download speeds and upload speeds are very very slow and I can hardly do any business over it such as my bill paying because it takes so long that it times out. Do you know any way we can get our Altell contract back on just our modem? do you have any words of wisdom that you could share in this matter. Thank you
Nope, no words of wisdom. If you did upgrade the aircard and switched to a VZW 5gb cap plan, your old unlimited plan is GONE. Sorry
do you have any suggestions on how to get better download and upload times...times that are at least as good as we had with alltel? we get a signal at 3-4 bars but the speeds are slow and the upload speed is FASTER than the download speed. We believe that we have a defective modem or one that is programed wrong because the instructions that we have been given from technical support has directions to follow that includes some actions to take that are not possible due to the lack of some required features on the VZ wireless manager program that was loaded on the card. we have a RSSI of -77 My husband feels like we have a bad modem. With our Alltel modem we did not have that good of a RSSI but had download speeds that were just a little slower than the T1 lines we have at our workplace. And the upload speeds were really good too...I could send pictures...now I cannot.
