[Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note5] IndirectPointer:
I would be interested to hear what you decide to do. And I grieve with you and commiserate on a lost weekend. Now I'm limping along with foxfi usb networking, so at least I can get internet to individual devices and watch HD netflix on TV. I watched Ex Machina, that was cool.

Verizon appeared to winking at me prior to this regarding my data usage. Buying a new phone, the sales rep kept advising me to move to one of their nifty data plans until he saw my monthly data consumption (>100GB) and visibly blanched. A smart salesman, he changed the subject. "We are glad to have you as a customer for 25+ years," he said. If you are eavesdropping Verizon, when a long-term customer leaves over an issue like this they don't come back (but they already know that). Which is more important to you? I guess gouging. Their pricing now is prohibitive and ridiculous.

So it looks like I am leaving Verizon and getting wired Internet in my home. For me this isn't getting something for nothing, although that is fun. Cost is huge issue for me or I wouldn't be doing any of this, so time again to get creative. Looking for an alternative, I found this offer from Virgin mobile (on Sprint network) .

Daily Hotspot: $3/day | 500MB​

Monthly Hotspot: $5/month | 1GB - OR - $10/month | 2GB​

HA HA HA. I burn 2GB downloading a movie. Or am I not supposed to admit that.

---------- Post added at 06:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:49 AM ----------

Verizon promises an open road for unlimited-data customers

The company may have raised the price of its grandfathered unlimited-data plan, but it says it won't try to slow down its heaviest users.

Verizon Wireless' unlimited-data customers finally have something to celebrate. Subscribers to the carrier's grandfathered unlimited plans won't suffer slowdowns, even if they run wild with their data usage, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said in an interview Tuesday.

The nation's largest wireless operator, which has a history of trying to nudge customers off unlimited plans, has become the last bastion of people who use a lot of data. Last week, Sprint joined the ranks of AT&T and T-Mobile in saying it would , or slow down their connection, if they went over a certain data threshold. Throttling policies underscore the high cost of providing unlimited-data services. New York-based Verizon is not immune. The company earlier this month raised the price of its unlimited service by $20 a month, but Shammo is adamant that Verizon won't follow its competitors in restricting usage.

"For a customer who signed up for unlimited, they're going to get unlimited," Shammo said. "But we are increasing the price. These customers are consuming a lot of data. But we're not in the habit of throttling customers."

Verizon hasn't offered its unlimited-data plan to new customers in four years, but it has let existing subscribers who were grandfathered into the plans keep them. The company hasn't made it easy on these people, crafting policies to discourage as many customers as possible from hanging on to the plans. Verizon has required unlimited subscribers to pay full price for new devices when upgrading. It also instituted the $20 price hike, which goes into effect next month and will bring the total cost of the service to around $100 a month for most customers. The policies were meant to encourage people to switch to tiered plans with a set amount of data that can be used each month. The efforts have paid off, with less than 1 percent of Verizon subscribers still on an unlimited-data plan.

Verizon wasn't always so anti-throttling. For years it slowed down customers with unlimited data on its 3G wireless network, abandoning the practice in June. The company had come under fire from regulators when it tried to expand the practice to its 4G customers. Last fall the company said it wouldn't go through with that plan.

Even though Verizon subscribers are the only ones to enjoy true unlimited data, customers on AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile still have to work pretty hard before their network speeds are affected. The thresholds differ by carrier, but most customers won't see a slowdown until they hit more than 20 gigabytes in a month, or enough data to stream all five seasons of the HBO series "Game of Thrones." The average user consumes about 3GB of data per month.

Still, it's a minor victory for a base of customers who have stubbornly clung to their plans.

www.cnet.com /news/verizon-promises-an-open-road-for-unlimited-data-customers/ October 20, 2015