yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Thunderbolt General] dadsterflip:
How does he know it ends Thursday? I've been looking around and all I see is the end of this year.
[Thunderbolt General] Mudavo:
Not surprised. Three days after the most locked down htc phone to date is rooted with s-off, rumors of verizon capping 4g data arise.
[Thunderbolt General] Robertjm:
After reading through this thread again I called Verizon Wireless and talked with someone in their sales department. I explained I was concerned about the availability of the unlimited plans after Thursday and that I was debating on purchasing a phone now vs waiting to see the new phones coming up and the posibility I would lose the lower unlimited package. He put me on hold so he could check some things.

He came back and said there is no expiration date in the system for the current pricing and when I pressed him more to explain he indicated when there are changes changes coming up he would have a change date in the system, especially since the rumor is it happening in only a couple of days. He felt comfortable in saying the pricing would still be around in the near future if I decided to wait for new devices to show up.
[Thunderbolt General] dadsterflip:
Doesn't make sense to have a blazzin fast 4glte if you can't even harness the speed if your worried you might go over?
[Thunderbolt General] Robertjm:
Well I just look at it as being a prudent shopper. I would rather have a $30 plan for unlimited data than $50 for 5gb of which I only use 1gb, or thereabouts. I'm in one of the LTE cities so if I can trully get those speeds I'll be using the device for a fair amount of tethering (once full root is established)
[Thunderbolt General] RMHisCOOL:
Full root and S-OFF were achieved this weekend, and I've been tethering this thing getting 8-12 Mb/s down on my computer.
[Thunderbolt General] AvErAgEj04:
They can't force your feature change while your in an agreement.. it breaches the terms and conditions.
[Thunderbolt General] eschelon:
No, they can't. But what they CAN do is change the terms of service at any time and then they give you 30 days to either accept the new terms, or you have the right at that point to cancel your contract without an ETF.

This is rarely done by cell companies, but has been done once or twice in the past several years. That being said, I don't anticipate Verizon pulling a stunt like this. I'm just warning peeps out there that it IS possible, though...
[Thunderbolt General] :
Yeah, they'll most likely grandfather us in... I mean we are such a small percentage of their customer base, in a few years when data is tiered and expensive we will still have our unlimited plans and Verizon won't care because as early adopters we deserve it and they will be making a ton of money off the people paying twice what we do for data when they finally get 4g smartphones.
[Thunderbolt General] NoMoreHeroes64:
Hm.. really hoping this is BS. If they do try to force any sort of change to my unlimited data I'm out.
[Thunderbolt General] bplewis24:
There's 20 minutes of my life I won't get back (reading this thread from start to the quoted post).

Brandon
[Thunderbolt General] icedmayhem:
to relax all people,

as of current, there is no mention of removing the unlimited 4g plans as of thursday, but then again we dont know till it happens.. usually things like this happen just at a random
[Thunderbolt General] RaptorMD:
One has to cover their arse or else it will get shot. I am covered and my city will have 4G LTE this year, confirmed with the 59 additional cities listed. Oh yeah.
[Thunderbolt General] allquixotic:
So basically the OP is a false alarm?

Great. Really great in one sense -- in the sense that I'm glad that it isn't really happening. But also sarcastically great, because this got us all huffy for no reason. :mad: Please try not to post information like this without being reasonably certain!
[Thunderbolt General] userxx:
Ditching unlimited data is coming.

I did a little research and found many articles about verizon ditching the unlimited data as soon as this June before the new iphone comes out. So it sounds like its coming sooner or later (a few months form now). Verizon Wireless’s CEO Lowell McAdam said he hopes to ditch unlimited plans entirely and charging instead for “buckets” of megabytes. Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said "such unlimited plans aren't a long-term solution" at a Morgan Stanley conference, but didn't elaborate.

itproportal.com/2011/03/02/verizon-wireless-cans-unlimited-data-plan-ahead-iphone-5-launch/
[Thunderbolt General] ERIFNOMI:
Same here except I used an update that was sitting on another line on the family plan. It may not be happening soon, but you know it will eventually. Might as well get in while you can, just in case.
[Thunderbolt General] imneveral0ne:
I dont think he would have posted it if he wasnt "reasonably certain".

He's a Manager of some sort at Verizon. And he did post a disclaimer a few pages back saying he was gonna look for more info and get back to us.
[Thunderbolt General] xderekaustinx:
I too work for Verizon, and can assure everyone that we in the brick and mortar stores know just as much as anyone else until the day it happens. They edit and changes plans all the time without any justification or warning to us or customers.

I personally would be much more inclined to believe the sooner rather than later, as that is always the safest way to be when it come to changes such as this...as I actually expect this to hold some water and look forward to reading the intranet at work tomorrow to see what all the buzz is about.

That being said, I myself, added a new line today to make sure I get the Thunderbolt with the unlimited 4G data plan, as I would be very afraid to own a device of it's caliber without that safety net.
[Thunderbolt General] Philosophre:
I guess some of you don't realize that this site is full of people who just so they can be heard. Whether it be credible info and maybe not so much.

I was at a verizon store on the 14th. I was talking to a retail rep there and he was telling me that the Tbolt was coming out on the 21st. I asked him if he was sure, because phones release on thursday. He was quite adamant. He also said that verizon was going to make it tier pricing when the tbolt comes out. I came back the following day on the 15th, the day when verizon had the press release about the the releasing of the tbolt on the 17th, and asked him about the press release. I wasn't surprised when he said he didn't know anything about a press release. And he heard nothing about the release of the phone on the 17th.

So in conclusion of my story, you can tell that workers there don't know anything. They don't even know about information that was released that very day. So if it is just retail worker posting up here saying this and that. Grain of salt without verification. I am fine with the tips and all, but always in the OP state that this is questionable intel so people don't go all panic mode and clutter this thread. If you got helpful info about the topic itself aka thursday is the cutoff then add something. If it is something about grandfathering and opening new lines, make a different thread please.

*RANT*

Still waiting for on topic credible intel.
[Thunderbolt General] milan03:
I'm so glad I got my Thunderbolt on a launch day. Knew something is gonna go down with unlimited data very soon. Already used 7GB in 5 days!!! Can't imagine being metered on freaking LTE network!
[Thunderbolt General] allquixotic:
Thanks for this clarification. I also find it validating somehow that they don't even give their own employees unlimited data. I wonder if the CEO gets unlimited data or if they impose the same restrictions on him as any other customer. In fact, I would love it if the operations center would insist that all the mahogany row people (CEO, CFO, CTO, etc) were forced to abide by the same rules as everyone else on the network. They probably wouldn't be able to live with the rules they themselves make.

The only people who know the full inside scoop on upcoming changes to pricing and plans are the decision making managers and C*Os at VZW headquarters. These are the elitist, company loyalist people who are creating these anti-consumer policies such as capping, so I highly doubt any of them would leak anything. The information doesn't flow down to consumer-friendly people (e.g. the folks in retail stores) until the same time as it's visible to the general public.

While we can probably see the writing on the wall from the things that Verizon leadership has officially said in public, there is no official information about actual dates when the plans would change, nor what the details of the plans would be, such as pricing or the size of the data cap.

Not saying leaks don't happen, just that I won't believe it unless it's coming from someone working at Verizon HQ involved in the decision making process. Otherwise the information ultimately turns out to be fairly unreliable, with many false "leaks" being propagated especially around the time of a major launch like this.
[Thunderbolt General] infraled:
Lol are you torrenting with your phone tethered or something? How do you use that much in that little of time?
[Thunderbolt General] ddgarcia05:
Once rooted can you tether your phone? I know currently the wifi hotspot is in its trial period until may. After the free trial is over can rooted users still tether undeteced. If yes the unlimited data is really worth it.
[Thunderbolt General] Old MuckenMire:
well if AT&T can detect unauthorized tethering then I would think Verizon can as well. I have to think that unauthorized tethering is going to be cracked down upon at some point. I cannot imagine Verizon is going to let us just tether 4G data for free, rooted or not.
[Thunderbolt General] PJnc284:
AT&T is just going after high bandwidth users and just assuming they're tethering as some have gotten the warning who don't even tether.

As for the guy using 7GB in 5 days, don't forget about the new throttle policy for the top 5% that Verizon put in place.
[Thunderbolt General] tornadog:
anybody know when 4G will be turned on in the tier 2 cities(Baton Rouge). When its turned on, will the phone automatically show up as 4G instead of 3G on the notification bar?
[Thunderbolt General] NoMoreHeroes64:
Yeah it should just automatically detect it. When I drove up to Cleveland last weekend my phone just picked up LTE somewhere along the way.
[Thunderbolt General] Familyguy1:
So is this true or what? Crap. I upgrade on Friday >:[
[Thunderbolt General] magneticzero:
Its crap...get your phone friday and enjoy. But Im pretty sure someday down the line verizon will change the policy, not right now while the phone is selling like hotcakes.
[Thunderbolt General] Darkmx2000:
LMAO..... :-)
[Thunderbolt General] Russ36363:
Yea, I just drove to work along the edges of the 4G area and had no issues switching between that and 3G once I left my home wifi
[Thunderbolt General] htowngator:
Be careful, though. When the Bionic comes out they could require you to go tiered or capped just to activate it.
[Thunderbolt General] Familyguy1:
Ok good, I was thinking it was.
[Thunderbolt General] milan03:
Here is the thing on with my 7GB usage...After the first day it said I used 2GB of data. Something had to be wrong, the next day my data usage dropped down to 400MB ??? Yesterday I logged in to My Verizon and as I said my usage was 7GB, but today is 3.4GB. WTF?

Anyhow, I'm not torrenting, just had to drive a few days ago to a different state and everyone in the car was using LTE (end loving life lol). Now everyone wants to buy Thunderbolt hehe :)

It's really the speedtesting and network testing and nothing else.
[Thunderbolt General] angermeans:
That's probably a good idea it is sad that the last small wireless company will be eatin up by greedy att. It was because of T-Mobile that a good many of the plans we have today are cheaper. I decided to switch from T-Mobile as I.wanted a better network. I have used all four and by far Verizon is the best. By the time att and sprint have lte I am thinking that Verizon will have a good percentage of America blanketed with coverage and maybe just maybe have even faster speeds (hey I can hope right) there was a good many people that said lte won't be much different than hspa+ and wimax but boy where they wrong. There isn't another wireless company out that matches lte especially in ping. Its good to be on the nations best wireless carrier. Welcome to Verizon and the thunderbolt family. I just got mine yesterday and love it. Huge upgrade from my Droid incredible. I won't use Motorola because of locked encrypted bootloaders (although I have/love the zoom unlockeable!) And will never purchase anything Samsung again. This phone is great and I had the chance to test it next to the atrix and the thunderbolt was hands down the faster phone. Just goes to show how far software goes. Now bring on the cyanogenmod 7.0 that is the only thing I.miss about my incredible and nexus one.
[Thunderbolt General] Old MuckenMire:
You would think Verizon would want to keep the unlimited plan to attract new users. I actually left AT&T where I had a grandfathered unlimited plan, but their Android phones suck and I couldn't take it anymore.

Without the unlimited 4G plan I would never have made the move. On the bright side if they eliminate 4G unlimited and do not allow us to be grandfathered past our contract, it makes it easier to look to go somewhere else again.

My next stop would probably be Sprint...it's not the greatest choice but they have good devices and unlimited data. That is until Verizon buys them :)
[Thunderbolt General] Familyguy1:
Most likely this will not till later. I can't see them doing this now....
[Thunderbolt General] perdurabo2:
Got a ThunderBolt yesterday and asked a couple of the savvier sales reps (who were chatting somewhat competently about Cyanogenmod flashing) about the Thursday deadline and they didn't know anything about a coming data cap. Granted, they aren't the know-alls.
[Thunderbolt General] skinien:
Has the OP posted a source? I find it unlikely considering Verizon first claimed it would happen in the summer and there hasn't been any other news about it.
[Thunderbolt General] mi7chy:
It would be in Verizon's best to continue the unlimited data offer to attract new customers. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't have gone Verizon.
[Thunderbolt General] wingdo:
This is exactly why I used my Amex card as well. If VZW decides to change my contract, after the 14 days but not that long after, I will get out of my VZW contract by calling Amex. I've done it in the past and am not afraid to do it again.

That said, I believe that VZW will grandfather whomever is signed up already. It's a very small number of their subscribers and the bad will generated by changing their contract would outweigh any extra money they would get from the raised pricing.
[Thunderbolt General] nkd:
To all those that say verizon wont grandfather people in, why not? Att the first company to launch tiered data and the first company to cap anything, until this day allows people to be grandfathered in. How many 4g customers will they have to grandfather in? I mean it wont be that many since its less then a week the device launched. I know they can change it at any times and make you sign up for that, but I believe they wont, I dont think they will turn worse then ATT.

To everyone the tech support told me that your plan, your data, your profile and everything about your account is on your sim, you pop your sim in another device and it carries over your plan and your profile from your account to the new device. So even if you get a droid bionic your data plan wont change.
[Thunderbolt General] rushless:
As per VZW and your contract, terms are only good through your contract. If you currently can not leave VZW without paying a termination fee- you are IN contract. If you can leave now and not pay anything, you are OUT contract.

Grandfathering only covers you if in contract. VZW can change yoour price plans if not, or getting a new phone. Will they? If it impacts their bottom line and cheaper for you to leave- yes, they will.

Thing is they are making money, so doubtful they would change your plan. Seems the evilness will be directed more to new customers.

added: Or maybe they will think "Where else will you go?" and gamble that not many will leave... Maybe 50/50 VZW changes all when contracts expire.
[Thunderbolt General] rushless:
For the length of their contract it is at least ;)

One year or two year force?
[Thunderbolt General] cnmsales:
This is why I went out last night and got mine. I didnt really have the money but knew id have this phone for a while and being able to stay unlimited is a GREAT thing. One thing I wonder though is Next Feb, when my fiance is due for an upgrade will this affect my unlimted data, or is it on a per number basis?
[Thunderbolt General] bplewis24:
Absolutely. In fact, my own personal not-worth-a-damn speculation is that they will continue with unlimited data until the next big contract renewal-season is upon us. I'm not an industry insider, but I would imagine that is around the time the shiny new iPhone comes out on AT&T and possibly Verizon. It would be a great marketing checkpoint to have over their competition.

If Verizon announces something tomorrow I will come back to this thread and apologize for being skeptical, but I just don't see it happening. There are going to be several new 4G phones on their network this year, and they need to market their shiny new LTE network buddy-buddy style with their great unlimited data plans. After people are locked in, they'll probably change things.

Brandon
[Thunderbolt General] NoMoreHeroes64:
I would assume it's on a per number basis since each line has a separate data plan.
[Thunderbolt General] SilentO:
if it ends this thursday, can we still sign up on thursday for the $30 unlimited 4G data plan?
[Thunderbolt General] psufan5:
They will most likely do what AT&T does. If you have unlimited, you will keep it as long as you are a customer. AT&T grandfathers no matter how many upgrades you perform.

Unlimited data is why I came to Verizon from AT&T. Needless to say I got it and was taken back by how awesome their network is.
[Thunderbolt General] sulman4u2:
I have Iphone 4 with unlimited data plan, but since Iphone 4 is 3g and say when I upgrade to Iphone 4 which is 4G, would I have to upgrade to a 4g data plan (which i'm assuming would have a cap by then) or I would still have my unlimited data plan because I'm grandfathered?

I asked a rep and he was saying they might make me switch to a 4g plan which would mean that it would be caped. So should I just go buy ThunderBolt then to have my unlimited data really be unlimited for the future??
[Thunderbolt General] BubbaRob1978:
I tried to get mine tonight at the Verizon store but they had a statewaide system outage here in MI so I waited 1.5 hours for nothing. Their systems never came back online. I'm heading back in the morning to try and see if I can grab one before they impose the data caps. I hope I don't miss out.

Whats the point in advertising all the streaming capabilities of video, music etc...on the 4G network yet cap us at 5GB? For those of us who are tech savvy we know the Thunderbolt on 4G will eat through 5GB watching video in a matter of a few hours. I would assume that with a faster network (4G) one would want to do more with it than we do on 3G because of the crazy fast speeds. Sure, you can send your email or load the web lightning fast but what good is 4G if you don't have enough data allowance to enjoy it? Just my opinion and I know everyone has their own.
[Thunderbolt General] bplewis24:
I think you're assuming the iPhone5 will be 4G, which nobody knows yet. It may not be. But, let's assume it is 4G and you were able to get it right now. You would NOT have to purchase a 4G data plan, because right now Verizon doesn't differentiate between 3G and 4G plans. People who purchased the Thunderbolt have the same $29 unlimited data plan that the rest of us do (correct me if I'm wrong, TB owners).

However, we have no way of knowing how long that will remain this way. Verizon could change this anytime. They could decide, the week before the Bionic releases, to change it so that a 4G phone requires a new 4G $39 data plan. Then new buyers would have no choice, and TB owners would laugh at us for at least 48 straight hours.

So, moral of the story: right NOW you don't have to, and if you want piece of mind that this will not change, you would have to buy the TBolt now and change phones later (while not breaking contract).

Brandon
[Thunderbolt General] ERIFNOMI:
That's right. This was a small factor in persuading me to get this phone. Bigger reason was how old my Droid was feeling and how much I didn't want another Motorola phone.
[Thunderbolt General] Philosophre:
Thursday is coming?!?!?!?!
[Thunderbolt General] aj356:
Haha I was at the Verizon store at 6pm and they said they had an outage too here in PA. I'm going to go in the morning too
[Thunderbolt General] zer071:
whew glad i got the phone when i did
[Thunderbolt General] HolyGrail:
I disagree with this. I tried to activate the thunderbolt without going to a 4G plan, but after a lot of time on the phone, an after many reps tried, could not activate it with just 3G. One explained that the thunderbolt's sim only works if you upgrade to the 4G plan. So more likely then not, if the iphone 5 is 4G (By then, 3G and 4G could differentiate by then) , its going to have a sim and your going to have to activated with a 4G plan. Verizon won't allow these phones to run with just a 3G plan.
[Thunderbolt General] azturbomini:
I'll stick my neck out and say for the record, "Unlimited 4g not ending on the 24th".
[Thunderbolt General] lynseyw:
Me too! :)
[Thunderbolt General] binglut9:
This is false they wouldn't just make a random announcement before giving some warning or time in hand and you act like going tiered will be bad it might actually save people money never know....but I highly doubt they will'just announce it and not tell anyone until the day they roll it out not practical
[Thunderbolt General] pdaadvocate:
I did the same too. totally agree.
[Thunderbolt General] rushless:
Apparently VZW has no practical way to control 3G/4G to the device, so it is easier to just chane the plan since the same price. A sign this is correct is the radio switches automatically for 3G/4G.

Probably by design, since they can then force people out of 3G unlimited, once the 4G is more common and contracts expire. Me thinks these phones are trojan horses for banishing the land of 3G unlimited contracts ;) :(
[Thunderbolt General] kierandill:
Curses! Where's martyotaku2 when you need definitive information?!??!?

:D
[Thunderbolt General] anourack:
Lol, waiting as well.
[Thunderbolt General] magneticzero:
Oh god it is thursday and they capped my data.................at unlimited :p
[Thunderbolt General] bplewis24:
True, the 4G hardware has to be activated. But the point is that the plan is the same to the end-user: we both pay $29/month for unlimited data. So as of right now there is no difference to us. That could change whenever Verizon wants it to, though.

Brandon
[Thunderbolt General] probotic:
This CAP if exists would be for 4G cards, not phones.
[Thunderbolt General] BubbaRob1978:
Just walked out of a corporate store with my TB. Still unlimited data. No caps as of this moment.
[Thunderbolt General] papi92:
The reason they haven't capped yet is no one will buy a 4g phone if they know they will be use 5 gb of data in half a month. We will be grandfathered but others who wait won't IMO
[Thunderbolt General] r0bd:
Not that I can see Verizon announcing said price increase before actually putting it into play, but has anyone actually received definitive confirmation that this change will go forward?

I'm contracted till 5/17 and really want to see what the dual core bionic has to offer vs. the TB, but don't want to miss out on the 4g pricing.

Decisions decisions. To buy outright or roll the dice. :confused: