[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] newuser134:
Your comparison is flawed. This cannot be compared to utilities, yes, especially since it's not a necessity. First, cell phone service is not like water or fuel. It's not a limited consumable, no one ever "runs out" of radio waves. The spectrum is public property and belongs to the government, they license it to cell phone carriers to use to provide a service, under certain rules and conditions. Verizon already has a bad track record for following those rules and conditions, and they have already been fined for it several times. I'll tell you why they make everything into a limited thing: because of greed. Verizon and AT&T are some of the greediest companies that exist. You can see that from how they adjust their plans continuously to charge people more for the same thing. If it were truly just to make a profit and deal with those who use WAY too much data, then they would have left the plans the way they were price-wise for thos who use the average amount of data, but no! They made it more expensive for the person who uses 3-4 GB compared to the unlimited plan, and they made it outrageously expensive for those who use a lot (this is still under their "older" tiered plans). Then they realized even on the tiered plans some people get close to using their whole data allowance, so with the shared everything they are trying to get those who still stayed within their tiered limits but used almost all of their data. Who the f thinks it's a reasonable deal to pay $50 + $40/smartphone for ONE GB of data? Why would you do that? The fact that minutes and texts are suddenly unlimited makes you wonder does that not cost anything all the sudden, compared to when it would be $0.45 for one minute over your limit? This shows they target people's specific use for maximum profit, something utility companies don't! So you cannot compare this to utilities and pay for what you use. This is a typical example of greed. I doubt VZW or AT&T operated at no profit before, so why do they need to be this greedy? I disagree with your premis.

Again, cell phone carriers use public spectrum under conditions of their license, so if they abuse the rules and start worrying more about profit than their customers' satisfaction, then they lose the right to provide service, and guess what, another new carrier company should take over that is not greedy and can provide the service without the crap Verizon pulls, such as locking bootloaders or constantly charging for every little thing they can. Last I remember, the water company is not greedy, does not try to make a huge profit, does not have tiered or overage charges, they just bring the water from its source to you, and you pay for the amount you use, and they don't tell you what brand washing machine to use! If you're gonna compare, compare all aspects, not just what benefits your part of he story.

2nd, not all things follow the "you pay for what you use" model! Do you pay your car and tag fees based on how much you drive? Do you pay for how much air you breathe? You only do that for things that cost more if you you a higher quantity, and for things that have a limited source, like fuel, electricity (produced from fuel) and water. Renewable things, or non-consumables, like air or miles on the road, do not follow that theory, and never should! Same with radio waves, they don't get consumed or run out. I doubt it cost Verizon ANY or that much more if you use 2 GB or 4 GB of data, the fact that they charge you more for it is purely from greed, because they see that they can do it, or because other providers' networks aren't as good, but that's just for now, they're not gonna be worse forever, eventually there will be more competition. The only thing that costs more if you use more data, is electricity going to their towers, and I doubt they charge you $20/GB extra for that, just like you don't pay any extra for charging your phone any more.

What you said in your example as a solution to avoid extra data use contradicts your own conclusion and theory. You suggested that everyone use wifi more often to avoid using 4G a lot. If your premise was that you pay for what you use, wouldn't that in itself be impossible? Then your wifi use wouldn't be any different. So you agree yourself to the fact that certain thing are not to be on a limited bases, so why should 4G or cell data be like that? Again, because of certain carriers' greed.

Lastly, another obvious thing that proves this is greed and the wrong model to use for data usage: The amount of data that can be used is determined by bandwidth. Bandwidth is a physical quantity, and it cannot be created out of the blue. I've seen some carriers state that if you're on an unlimited plan, if you use x GB of data, your data use will be controlled and you'll pay extra or get slower data due to bandwidth limitations. However, if you're on a tiered plan and use the SAME x GB of data, it's ok, because you're already paying for it. That tells me it's completely BS that they're trying to do away with the unlimited plans. If the bandwidth is limited and you absolutely cannot use more than a certain amoun, then it doesn't matter if your on unlimited or tiered, there is no physical ability to use more data, don't tell me more bandwidth magically appears if you pay more! They can't just pull out more network capacity out of their pockets if you pay more! That means they have the capacity already, they just want everyone to pay more for it. I agree that wireless data has limitations and it cannot be completely unlimited to infinity, but I don't think they're anywhere near their limits, otherwise they would truly control data usage to make sure data quality is maintained, not to make an extra profit from it, that just shows greed.

My 2 cents, doing away with unlimited plans is due to greed, not to control network quality, for the time being, anyone that says otherwise is not telling the truth. Just read through these comments and decide for yourself what seems more likely. The comparison to utilities though, is completely without a base. You're comparing two different things.