Verizon Droid Tethering Comes At a Hefty Price 555
Pickens writes "Tom Bradley reports in PC World that the new Motorola Droid smartphone will cost users $199.99 with a 2-year contract, with an additional $30 per month for the mandatory 'unlimited' data plan that has a monthly cap of 5Gb. Verizon will charge $50 for each additional gigabyte over the 5Gb limit on the unlimited data plan. Verizon has confirmed that tethering will cost another $30 per month for an additional unlimited data plan that is also limited to 5Gb. If you want tethering you will pay $60 above and beyond the monthly contract for service for an 'unlimited' 10Gb of data per month, and if you plan on connecting with an Microsoft Exchange email account you have to pay another $15 a month. 'Verizon seems to be doing everything it can to make the Droid as unappealing as possible by nickel and diming customers so that actually using it is not cost-effective,' writes Bradley. 'After all of the hype around Verizon's marketing efforts, and generally favorable reviews of the Motorola Droid, users that rush out to get the new device may be in for a shock.' Droid users will have to wait until sometime in 2010 for tethering. 'That service is on our schedule for next year,' says Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney. The delay is because 'the service has to be tested on the phone so until we know it works, we don't offer the service. It is not uncommon for us to introduce the phone and continue to test the service and offer it later.'"
Tethering (Score:3, Informative)
For all of us cavemen out there who still just use our cell phones to make phone calls:
Tethering is using a mobile device to gain Internet access for another device.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tethering [wikipedia.org]
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Now where's the link to all the 3G carriers who allow tethering and how much t
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Oh, I should note that there is not additional fee to use ActiveSync on AT&T's network either. I'm really surprised Verizon is going to try and nickel and dime on that aspect.
I'm also curious as to what the 'base' cost of the droid will be monthly on Verizon? $60 bucks is expensive on AT&T, but covers the basics cell/data (no tethering and texts optional). I wonder how the two stack up? From what I'm reading, it will be $60 dollars for the 'unlimited' limited 10GB plan, on top of the monthly base ch
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OP is ranting to a degree that he's misrepresenting his case.
First, all smartphones require this crappy extra $30/month fee. Blackberries, iphones... Droids. It sucks, but Droid isn't the bad guy here, it's every carrier.
Second, tethering isn't supported for most smartphone plans on the major networks. You want it on your iphone, too bad. The iphone itself supports it (as does Droid obviously) and AT&T doesn't. Well, apparently they will, but they will charge extra, just like Verizon. (http://mashable.c
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I LOL'ed at this one. An unlimited data plan limited to "5Gb." What a country!
Re:MOD PARENT DOWN (Score:5, Insightful)
couldn't some group of americans sue the shit out of dumbass companies who use misleading marketing - calling something with a cap "unlimited" should result in their whole marketing department fired and any manager who approved it receiving hefty financial fine.
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couldn't some group of americans sue the shit out of dumbass companies who use misleading marketing - calling something with a cap "unlimited" should result in their whole marketing department fired and any manager who approved it receiving hefty financial fine.
What if a customer agrees to pay the bill subject to a 5 dollar a month fair billing policy?
Turnabout is fair play.
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Fair?
I think that would be more like $30 per month fee, with a $50 surcharge for each truckload of bullshit after the first five truckloads of bullshit (on the mandatory unlimited bullshit plan).
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RUN AWAY FROM VERIZON WIRELESS! (Score:4, Informative)
I am a Verizon Wireless customer. They make "horrible customer service" sound like something to aspire to.
They haven't been able to get my bill "right" for months. Every single month there are random charges tacked on, that they cannot explain when I call. Until recently, they've cancelled these charges with good apology. But now?
I have two phones suspended because they are lost. Originally, I was told I could suspend them indefinitely. Then I was told that I could only suspend them month-by-month. Then I was was told I could suspend them three months at a time. Now, they're telling me that I can only suspend 6 months per year.
So I decided to buy out the contract. They're charging me for two months' service for two phones I don't even have. And they're charging me for an entire month of service for both of those two phones AFTER the contract has been cancelled!
If you are ever, EVER tempted to go Verizon, RUN LIKE HELL OUT OF THERE. They make a pack of lying vultures seem friendly!
Re:MOD PARENT DOWN (Score:5, Informative)
That was tried in the UK with ADSL providers advertising "unlimited" broadband. They got around it by reclassifying exactly what is unlimited - it is now "unlimited access" so at any time 24/7/365.25 you can have access, but it isn't unlimited bandwidth.
Sue all you like - they'll find a loop-hole somewhere and the only people to really gain will be the lawyers.
The only real way to fix the current advertising problems is to educate the general public to not fall for stupendously unrealistic claims in advertising - unfortunately the general public seem somewhat immune to the effects of such education probably because critical thinking doesn't appear to be fashionable.
Re:MOD PARENT DOWN (Score:5, Insightful)
That was tried in the UK with ADSL providers advertising "unlimited" broadband. They got around it by reclassifying exactly what is unlimited - it is now "unlimited access" so at any time 24/7/365.25 you can have access, but it isn't unlimited bandwidth.
Except that the website does not advertise "unlimited access". The text on the website reads, and I quote, "Unlimited Data for Mobile Web and Get it Now/Media Center".
It says quite clearly, "unlimited data". I know that Verizon [and the other telcos] will happily fight and say there's fine print somewhere that says otherwise, but please, there *HAS* to be some lawyer out there who's good enough to get a judge to realize that this is nothing but false advertising, and some pretty obvious bait-and-switch tactics.
Re:MOD PARENT DOWN (Score:4, Insightful)
"Unlimited Data for Mobile Web and Get it Now/Media Center".
They are called "Mobile Web" and "GetItNow" because they are "custom connections", neither are traditional broadband connections and are subject to the rules the "offerer" decides to apply. Smoke and mirrors and half-truths, sure. That's what they do.
That's why the Droid marketing was so short on facts and details before the release, they're playing it so the emotional consumers will buy it up before they realize they're getting gouged every month for the next two years(or pay the $300+ termination). Sue all you want, the lawyers will take your money faster than VZW will... hard to believe, but true.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Fair catch. But win this one in court and then they just point out that it says nothing about guaranteed rates. Used more then 1Gb? 1Kbyte/sec maximum it is for you then.
Which is still an improvement. Going from outright lying to just being slimy is much better than we've got in the right now. Unlike jolly old england, we don't actually have an agency currently enforcing truth standards in advertisements.
Re:MOD PARENT DOWN (Score:5, Informative)
Oh goody, so instead of the stress of a lawsuit with a huge telco, I wait 3 years and get a coupon good for "$10 off my next Verizon phone purchase", while the law firm makes $50M in fees and contingency?
Color me unexcited.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh goody, so instead of the stress of a lawsuit with a huge telco, I wait 3 years and get a coupon good for "$10 off my next Verizon phone purchase", while the law firm makes $50M in fees and contingency?
Color me unexcited.
I think you may be completely missing the point of a lawsuit like this. That's... disheartening.
I see Slashdotters rant and rave about how companies use lawsuits as revenue streams, and yet here we have a comment that shows no interest in a lawsuit that doesn't result in a significant personal gain.
Sometimes you sue just to get things changed.
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Most likely there's an error in the summary. It is more likely:
"An extra charge for Verizon to provide an Exchange server for you."
This is how AT&T works. It's something like $10 extra if you want an Exchange server account provisioned for you by AT&T, but I have no problem using Google Sync with my AT&T account.
Also, AT&T's tethering plan is the exact same price as Verizon's - $60/month (total on top of voice plan) for 5GB.
Re:Tethering (Score:5, Informative)
Tell me how this is "taking a giant crap" over an iPhone killer?
Extra charge for a provider-provisioned Exchange server? Yup, AT&T has that too. I'm 90% positive that non-provider-provisioned exchange servers aren't blocked by VZW (they aren't with AT&T).
$60/month total for a 5GB tethering plan? Same as AT&T. (Note, last I checked, there was no official support whatsoever for iPhone tethering.)
FYI I am an AT&T customer, and left VZW two years ago a very unhappy customer, but the summary is unjustly misworded to paint VZW extremely negatively when in reality their data pricing is no different than AT&T. (Which is an improvement, VZW's data pricing used to be AWFUL compared to AT&T.)
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well if you are happy with these plans fair enough, but here in Ireland I'm paying 20 a month for 15gb hspda and can use it for what I want. even on a pay as you go no contract deal its 25 for 10gb a month.
regular broadband plans cost about 50 if you take in the line rental.
Admit it the American telco's are ripping you off and stop apologizing for their abusive behaviour
Re:Tethering (Score:4, Informative)
There are four major ones, nearly everyone else is a reseller of the four.
The four are split 50/50 into two technology camps: Verizon and Sprint use Qualcomm CDMA2000, AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM/UMTS.
Of each of the technology camps, there's one "big boy" and one "small fry" provider. The "big boys" (AT&T and Verizon) have relatively expensive service plans, however they also have quite comprehensive coverage even in rural areas. The "small fry" have cheap service plans, but pitiful coverage areas. For example, T-Mobile users get zero coverage for 15-20 miles of highway west of Vestal, NY, including where I live and work (Owego). AT&T and Verizon, however, have very strong coverage in all areas around Owego, despite it being a relatively small rural town.
Quick Guys! (Score:5, Funny)
4. A Robot may not grossly overcharge a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to be grossly overcharged, except where such orders would conflict with the first, second, or third laws.
Re:Quick Guys! (Score:4, Interesting)
If they're not robots, what can possibly explain this:
Verizon doesn't know Dollars from Cents [blogspot.com]
The stupidity just goes on, and on, and on ...
It'd be nice if they stopped lying. (Score:5, Insightful)
If the plan is limited, it's not "unlimited", so please stop pretending. No, any cap is a cap is not no cap is not "unlimited". How many marketeers do you need to fire to stop believing otherwise, verizon?
Re:It'd be nice if they stopped lying. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It'd be nice if they stopped lying. (Score:4, Insightful)
Mod parent up - Funny or insightful, pick one.
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It seems like there would be some agency to complain to when a company advertises something that isn't true...
I know of the advertising standards agency in the UK. What's the US equivalent?
There is a US equivalent isn't there?
Re:It'd be nice if they stopped lying. (Score:5, Funny)
Of course not. We let the market decide, because in our faith, consumers have the time and ability to be perfectly rational and omniscent in the economic sense. Any time a consumer is decieved, it's because they have sinned, and so they deserve it. To stand in the way of the invisible hand is to deny the will of God (or society, or something) ... :)
Re:It'd be nice if they stopped lying. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, the Federal Trade Commission [wikipedia.org]. Their teeth are about as sharp and fearsome as an earthworm:
The goal is prevention rather than punishment, reflecting the purpose of civil law in setting things right rather than that of criminal law. The typical sanction is to order the advertiser to stop its illegal acts, or to include disclosure of additional information that serves to avoid the chance of deception. Corrective advertising may be mandated. But there are no fines or prison time except for the infrequent instances when an advertiser refuses to stop despite being ordered to do so. [emphasis added]
So, kind of like a police officer running after a purse-snatcher yelling, "Stop! Or I'll yell stop again!"
Re:It'd be nice if they stopped lying. (Score:5, Funny)
You misunderstand; it's the fees that are unlimited rather than the service provided.
A "limited" account would have a cap on how much Verizon could potentially charge you per month.
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Why the sudden outrage? (Score:3, Interesting)
This isn't new: these terms are exactly the same as Verizon's current plans for Blackberry service. $30/month for the smartphone "data plan", plus an extra $30/month for tethering. And yes, they've always called it "unlimited", but it's always been capped at 5GB. I've been paying these rates for some time. It's annoying, but it's been going on for ages.
It's amusing to me that people are only getting outraged about this now because Verizon is selling a popular new phone that everyone wants to buy.
Re:It'd be nice if they stopped lying. (Score:5, Informative)
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What does "unlimited" mean to most people? (Score:3, Insightful)
While you're technically correct, I don't think that most people understand "unlimited" to mean "infinite." I wouldn't say that I have "limited" water at home, even though, yes, technically, I can only fill a finite number of buckets in a month.
There's a big difference between "we're cutting you off" and "you can have as much as we can physically give you."
Re:It'd be nice if they stopped lying. (Score:5, Insightful)
Free market (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Free market (Score:4, Interesting)
Pretty much. My fiancee and I will be combining our accounts next spring (she has AT&T, I have Verizon), and AT&T is sort of our default because both of our families use AT&T. We want smart phones, not necessarily the iPhone, and I was excited about the Droid. I should have expected that Verizon would come up with an 'unlimited' but capped at 5 GB plan. Guess it'll be the iPhone after all.
I really do want to be able to tether, because we occasionally travel and don't have WiFi access and I want to use the laptop. But I've survived this long without tethering, and a smart phone will be enough for light web browsing and email.
Re:Free market (Score:5, Funny)
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You haven't been around much, have you?
Or maybe your are from another universe where things work differently?
In Canada, Bell and Telus just started offering the iPhone. At the exact same, if not higher prices than the incumbent Rogers. So much for 'free market competition'.
Re:Free market (Score:5, Informative)
This is a highly deregulated industry...
Which allows collusion, continued high prices and lackluster service.
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In a deregulated industry will keep prices high if the barrier to entry into that industry is high as well. For cell phone providers the barrier to entry is really high since it costs millions to buy spectrum and billions to buy and install cell towers.
Yea, you can lease time from the already installed towers, but again it's really expensive and since those who run the towers also provide end-user service so they can dictate the terms to the renting providers and don't really care if you lose money or not
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I should have expected that Verizon would come up with an 'unlimited' but capped at 5 GB plan. Guess it'll be the iPhone after all.
I really do want to be able to tether, because we occasionally travel and don't have WiFi access and I want to use the laptop. But I've survived this long without tethering, and a smart phone will be enough for light web browsing and email.
Light web browsing and email isn't going to come close to 5 GB per month. I use my G1 for email, web browsing, maps, RSS, Facebook, Twitter, and internet radio, and it adds up to less than 1 GB per month.
Re:Free market (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Free market (Score:4, Interesting)
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AT&T enforces tethering fees on WinMo by locking the "internet sharing" app to use a different GPRS APN than the phone itself uses. No extra $, no access to the magic APN, no tethering. Of course, if you buy an unlocked (ie unbranded retail, not SIM-unlocked AT&T) WinMo phone, you can just configure internet sharing to use the usual APN, and everything is hunky dory.
With Droid I'd imagine it'll be easier. There are already several tethering solutions for G1 that should work just as well for Droi
Re:Free market (Score:4, Informative)
The simple solution for most stuff is Browser ID strings and in some cases, MAC address prefixes. I know that in the UK, I could convince the O2 cloud to let me surf the web using wifi from my laptop on my free iPhone bandwidth simply by changing my laptop MAC address and browser ID to be mobile safari.
I'm not sure how they would detect other apps, but as soon as you fire up a standard browser, it would be pretty easy to spot if you haven't changed this.
Re:Free market (Score:4, Interesting)
One of my friends unlocked his Blackberry and enabled tethering without paying Verizon the tethering fee. He was playing MMOs via the phone's internet connection and this lasted for about half a month before Verizon noticed and disconnected him. When he opened up a web browser they showed him a message telling him that he was tethering without paying for it and offered to re-enable it for a few dollars a month. All he had to do was click "ok" and it automatically added tethering to his bill and re-enabled the access instantly.
They are doing something to track if you are tethering and not paying for, possibly just by watching the usage and what kinds of things you are doing (for example - WoW packets showing up on the phone automatically means tethering since the phone itself isn't capable of playing World of Warcraft).
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Simple, in so many ways
1) the PC will pass it;s MAC address through the device. This can easily be detected.
2) Android does not his update.microsoft.com, nor an AV update site, nor half a dozed other IPs and services that are rediculously difficult to prevent your PC from communicating with.
3) "browser type" is not the android default on your PC.
4) simple software that's part of the bridged network adapter "tells" them it's being tethered, and tracks the data through each interface seperately.
5) downloading
Re:Free market (Score:5, Insightful)
I should have expected that Verizon would come up with an 'unlimited' but capped at 5 GB plan. Guess it'll be the iPhone after all.
So you don't want to get the Droid, because Verizon is evil and calls their plan unlimited when it's really 5 GB/month. Fair enough. Then, you decide to turn to the iPhone, where Apple pulls apps because they dare to compete with AT&T? I hate to be the one to tell you, but you're trading one evil master for another, not getting a better situation.
On the one hand... (Score:2)
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On the other hand, how can they call any capped thing "unlimited"? How would they not end up in court for some kind of false advertising or breach of contract?
Because you're not prevented from using more than 5GB, you just have to pay more for the privilege.
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Re:On the one hand... (Score:4, Informative)
No, no, lemme break it down.
Data is cheaper in bulk, but I probably won't us that much data. I'd certainly use more than 15MB if it was both cheap and convenient; the web browser on the Droid's better, I can download MP3s from Amazon, and I may not always have Wifi access, so I might find 1GB/mo at $6/mo reasonable. However, as I can break 800 text messages easy and the difference between 1000 and Infinite is $5, it's likely I'd be paying $60 + $30 now(!), nevermind my $60/mo bill somehow costs me $80/mo.
Looking at my bill, I pay almost $15/mo for data; 2mb of data, and $10 for owning the VZNavigator app. As the Droid will give me a mapping utility that should replace VZNavigator, plus unlimited data, I should lose that $15... so my bill should drop to $72 plus the $30 ... $102/mo.
By the way, 1112 text messages, plus 336 within Verizon's network, plus 86 picture messages. That 1000/mo for $15? Not doable. It's either $40 + $20 for 5000, or $60 for unlimited. Yes, it costs the same to get INFINITE texts/pics as it does to get 5000.
Well I'm getting the Droid, and I'm definitely abusing the data plan.
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How the hell? (Score:2, Insightful)
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The ASA ought to sort that out.
But you can get decent tethering plans in the UK.
Verizon = US, right? (Score:5, Insightful)
So does that mean that you can only get a Droid telephone with a verizon account?
If so, there's your problem: your markets for mobile telecom are vendor-locked, and thus not very free. Say what you might about the EU, they really whipped the mobile telco's into submission and as such, we don't have a system where your phone is branded by the telco. Incidentally, Apple is trying to push such a model to Europe, but people here are not buying into it.
If not so, what's the big deal? Just buy the droid and don't choose Verizon as your provider.
Re:Verizon = US, right? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Verizon = US, right? (Score:5, Informative)
T-Mo and AT&T both use GSM and are pretty good about SIM-unlocking their phones. (In general both will provide a SIM unlock if you've been a customer in good standing, meaning bills paid, for 90 days.)
That said, there are enough differences between the bands they use that I wish you luck in using a T-Mo phone on AT&T or an AT&T phone on T-Mo, unless you enjoy the pain and suffering of EDGE data. I do not know of a single phone on this planet that does UMTS in all three of the bands used for it in the USA.
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If not so, what's the big deal? Just buy the droid and don't choose Verizon as your provider.
While in theory Sprint and Verizon phones will interoperate, in practice both vendors have a long history of refusing to warm up a competitor's phone. This is incredibly stupid of them, because they actually charge you for a phone upgrade in your phone bill every year, and if you don't get one they just pocket the money, but it's still how they do business. (Numerous people are counterexamples... they are not very numerous, however.) In any case, neither one is GSM, so if you buy a phone from either the onl
Re:Verizon = US, right? (Score:4, Informative)
Here in the US, the Droid is a CDMA/EVDO variant, which means it is only capable of operating on two carriers - Verizon Wireless and Sprint. Verizon can basically charge whatever fees they want, as they do have the largest 3G network in the US. Verizon works in remote areas better than any other carrier. Verizon also has the Droid device locked to their network.
It is possible to buy an unlocked Motorola Milestone and use it in the US, but that would only gain you 3G access on AT&T Wireless and not T-Mobile. T-Mobile uses a different 3G band than the rest of the known GSM world.
Remember, we don't have to protect consumers or competition in the US, only our large corporations bank accounts. I do wish we had Europe's model though. I noticed how great it was when I was in London for a few weeks.
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Anything less than tri-band GSM is unheard of. Quad-band GSM (All 2.5G bands in USA and Europe) is pretty common.
Tri-band UMTS is rarer, but now to achieve compatibility with all providers you would need quad-band UMTS. (2 for AT&T, 1 for T-Mo USA and 1-2 Korean or Japanese providers, 1 for the rest of the world) I have yet to see a quadband UMTS device.
So... (Score:5, Funny)
These aren't the Droids I'm looking for
What else did you expect? (Score:2)
Lowering the bar for AT&T (Score:3, Informative)
This simplifies things a lot for AT&T (who still hasn't introduced tethering for the iPhone): All they have to do to get back on the high horse is come up with a better pricing plan than Verizon's and have the service available in the next couple of months. Even AT&T can potentially pull that off.
As for the Exchange data plan - both Verizon and AT&T already do this on paper for smartphones, but that's the "corporate" data plan. On all the phones I've seen (for both networks) it doesn't actually matter - if your phone supports ActiveSync and you have a personal account it still works fine.
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All they have to do to get back on the high horse is come up with a better pricing plan than Verizon's and have the service available in the next couple of months.
Of course AT&T should cost less than Verizon. It's inferior service.
TetherBot (Score:2, Interesting)
generally favorable reviews? (Score:2)
Robert Scoble compares the Droid to to Windows 3.1.
The Droid fails AS A PRODUCT when compared to Palm Pre and iPhone [scobleizer.com]
Between this review, the increased cost of dumping a crappy phone, and the general high cost of actually using it for data, I'm going sit on the sidelines a little longer
A battery cover that falls off? A physical keyboard that "peels" off?
Come on Motorola! I think you're better than that!
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A battery cover that falls off? A physical keyboard that "peels" off?
Huh? I own a Droid, and I can tell you that neither of those is true. The author of your article is either very unlucky or a raging liar.
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The leadoff negative point about the droid is that he doesn't like the way the back of the phone looks because you can see the battery cover. Come on, that's ridiculous. Most of use the front of the phone.
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Say what? (Score:4, Insightful)
Am I reading this right? They call the 5GB a month plan "unlimited", and charge $50 PER additional gigabyte (when they were perfectly willing to accept $6/gigabyte before you went over the limit)
Why don't they control usage another way? Say, if you go over 5GB a month, your data rates get slashed to 1/5 or 1/10 the normal speed, and the phone gives you an OPTION to pay an additional fee if you want your full speed restored. I actually think a cap is a good thing FOR PHONES because radio spectrum is a finite resource. Verizon only owns so much spectrum, and using current modulation technology, can only send so much data through the air in a particular cell at one time. There are high tech ways around this problem, but they cost a lot of money, and heavy users should pay more.
But they way they are doing this is just a trap basically. I bet the phone doesn't even tell you if you go over the limit, unless you look in some deeply buried menu. They are just setting you up for a huge bill during that one month when you actually use the phone's internet capabilities to their full potential.
And the phone had so much promise. They say the screen kicks the ass of the iphone, and that the CALL QUALITY is vastly clearer and better. I believe it - I had a CDMA phone years ago, and I recall it being nearly as clear and stable a connection as a land-line. Darn nokia phone would work everywhere as well. I've never, ever gotten service this good through ATT.
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I actually think a cap is a good thing FOR PHONES because radio spectrum is a finite resource.
it's fine if you don't advertise as unlimited. That's fraud. Why it is protected when cellphone companies do it, I don't know.
I believe it - I had a CDMA phone years ago, and I recall it being nearly as clear and stable a connection as a land-line.
It has nothing to do with ATT vs. Verizon or GSM vs. CDMA, it's all about your phone. My RAZR V3i gave better call quality than my V500 upg. to V600 (or wtfever it was exactly, I lent my backup phone to someone who destroyed it.)
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Am I reading this right? They call the 5GB a month plan "unlimited", and charge $50 PER additional gigabyte (when they were perfectly willing to accept $6/gigabyte before you went over the limit)
Why don't they control usage another way? Say, if you go over 5GB a month, your data rates get slashed to 1/5 or 1/10 the normal speed, and the phone gives you an OPTION to pay an additional fee if you want your full speed restored. I actually think a cap is a good thing FOR PHONES because radio spectrum is a finite resource. Verizon only owns so much spectrum, and using current modulation technology, can only send so much data through the air in a particular cell at one time. There are high tech ways around this problem, but they cost a lot of money, and heavy users should pay more.
But they way they are doing this is just a trap basically. I bet the phone doesn't even tell you if you go over the limit, unless you look in some deeply buried menu. They are just setting you up for a huge bill during that one month when you actually use the phone's internet capabilities to their full potential.
And the phone had so much promise. They say the screen kicks the ass of the iphone, and that the CALL QUALITY is vastly clearer and better. I believe it - I had a CDMA phone years ago, and I recall it being nearly as clear and stable a connection as a land-line. Darn nokia phone would work everywhere as well. I've never, ever gotten service this good through ATT.
Actually the article says 5Gb's not 5GB's like every one is saying. If it was 5GB's it wouldn't be too bad but as it stands now the 5Gb's comes out to a little over 1/2 GB's, which is terrible.
Suckers... (Score:2)
And people will still pay this extortionist price because they absolutely must have the latest electronic crack pipe available. Suckers. People will never learn, at least here in the USA that the only way to force companies not to do this shit is to stop paying them to do it.
Only a fool would pay that (Score:3, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Inaccurate Exchange Pricing (Score:3, Informative)
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Verizon charges "corporate" customers an extra $15/mo to access "corporate" (aka Exchange) email. This is true with all of their smartphones and is similar in pricing to what ATT & Sprint charge. Personal accounts can access Exchange w/o any additional charges.
Maybe because they know that anyone who uses exchange for email is 1) a big company and 2) doesn't care about money.
How will they enforce it? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
They can't enforce it, people tether with Verizon phones now without tethering plans, and there are already tethering apps for Android. Also, Exchange is only extra if you're a corporate customer.
Microsoft Exchange email account you ...$15 (Score:5, Informative)
No. Not any Exchange account, only the one that is provided by Verizon. Connecting to your corporate account doesn't cost anything extra. Other than getting the data plan.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
That's not quite right. Verizon doesn't provide Exchange accounts AFAIK. The extra $15 dollars is if you are on a business account. This comes from friends who are Verizon sales monkeys, but I Googled it too for you Citation Provided.
$30 for personal data plan. You can Exchange all you like.
$45 for corp data plan. You can Exchange all you like.
+$30 more for tethering. For me, not worth it, since there is secured-wifi literally everywhere I go on a regular basis. YMMV
Egregious, I say, but not exactly how the
GSM Droid? (Score:2)
And what will it be called? Sholes? Milestone? etc?
The Motorola Milestone is supposedly launching in Germany... can we import that and use it with T-Mobile or AT&T in the US?
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Does anyone have reliable info about when the GSM version of the Motorola Droid will be release? And what will it be called? Sholes? Milestone? etc?
It's going to be heavy and called Millstone.
Summary is dead wrong (Score:5, Informative)
The data plan is, in fact, unlimited. I go over 5 GB a month on my current Verizon phone regularly. This is no different. Tethering specifically has a 5 GB limit which is stated in the contract for it. There are also readily available hacks to make tethering work on an Android phone.
Re:Summary is dead wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed - almost all of the cell providers should be fined for deceptive trade practices the way they sucker people into huge bills - all agreed to in fine print.
All of this would be fixed by a very simple law - anybody ought to be able to set a limit on their monthly bill. If I call up evilphoneco and tell them that my cell phone bill is capped at $90 per month, then I don't care WHAT services I consume - they can't charge me more than $90 per month. It is their job to keep me from using services I haven't paid for - not my job to avoid accidentally incurring them. And no incurring of debts either - if they deliver me $10k worth of services they can bill me $90 once and then we're even.
Oh, the second part of that law would be that everybody's cap starts out at whatever their basic monthly rate is. Unless somebody specifically requests a higher limit they couldn't be charged for any "optional" services.
And no giving people limited choices like $10/month or unlimited only. People should be able to name their own limits as arbitrarily as they'd like.
It seems like phone companies depend on people making $500 mistakes with their cell phones, and they almost count on people doing it. They get zero mercy when it happens. At best they might be offered an option for $10 per month to cap their bill. That should NOT be something that costs money.
or... (Score:3, Insightful)
Or you can just use any unlocked Symbian phone on a GSM carrier and tether it to your heart's content. And in most places other than the US, that's exactly what you're supposed to do. You know, $30/month 5Gbyte data plans and all that.
Mind you, Symbian sucks as a phone OS compared to Android, but Android really needs to get Symbian-like tethering. And Verizon's data plans are laughably expensive.
Wrong Information (Score:5, Informative)
The difference between the $30 and $45 data plan isn't documented well and leads to a lot of confusion. I fault VZW for not getting this strait. All the $45 gets you is access their WirelessSync service and supposedly allow you to do Exchange ActiveSync within the TOS. The $30 plan CAN DO Exchange ActiveSync, but it's supposedly not ok within their poorly documented TOS and every VZW employee will tell you that you need the $45 plan if you're going to do Exchange ActiveSync.
If you do use a lot of data on your phone, VZW can cancel your data account according to their TOS. I've used >5GB/month without a peep from VZW and any additional charge on my bill. It has been said in HoFo, if the data usage is extreme by VZW opionion, they could consider that your must be doing something that's violating the TOS. If VZW was smart, they wouldn't do much canceling since they're launching a bunch of Android phones and saying streaming YouTube and music is ok, which obviously will soak up a lot of bandwidth.
I suggest that Pickens and the article author do some fact checking before publishing assumptions and hearsay.
Doesn't really matter (Score:2)
PC World Has it out for the Droid (Score:5, Informative)
Next, the $15 a month for Exchange is if you're an enterprise customer. I'm not really sure what that means - if they host the account for you, or handle some extra securtity stuff, or what - but if you're just average Joe user with your own personal account, you won't need to pay it. There is no problem using Exchange with the regular personal data plan.
These facts can easily be confirmed by checking out Verizon's website, but the boys over at PCWorld are too busy making out with their iPhones to do any fact checking.
If its got Android, it can be tethered (Score:4, Informative)
Or if you're a bit more tech savvy, like me, you can root your phone (which is just plain beneficial anyway) and install the free Wifi tether for root users app. It works like a charm, kinda sucks battery tho
Like the old kids game... (Score:3, Funny)
The good news: there are now two usable touch-screen smart phones on the market
The bad news: they still run on the same networks.
I already emailed verizon about this (Score:3, Interesting)
I received this response:
I also called a couple of weeks ago and a phone rep told me (paraphrased) that I could keep my own service and deal with dropped calls all the time or pay more for better service.
So basically, Verizon thinks its service is worth more money despite providing the same level for more than any other carrier.
My t-mobile with 2 G1 phones comes with 1000 minutes, unlimited data, unlimited m2m and nights and weekends, 400 sms. My bill is an average of $130 a month.
Verizon's comparable plans would be $180 for less minutes.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
What are you talking about?
T-Mobile offer a £12 (or 12.50) add-on for their contracts (or included in some of them) that gets you 3GB including tethering. You're being ripped off if you're still paying late-90s data prices.
Re:Beats UK prices (Score:4, Funny)
The unlimited that is limited, the free you have to pay. And Orwell and I laughing in the newspeak sense.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
It's gigabytes, the idiots who wrote the article probably don't know the difference.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Actually there's no hard-and-fast standard for capitalisation of the abbreviation of "bits" and "bytes". There's an IEEE recommendation on the subject, but if you follow it, you should only use "B" for bytes of unspecified size, and "o" for eight-bit bytes. Thus there's a hard core of technically literate, but perverse, souls who favour the lower case, for consistency with the SI units.