Verizon

Verizon

How much does it cost?

The Go Unlimited plan starts at $75 a month for one line. It costs $130 a month for two lines, $150 a month for three lines, or $160 a month for four or more lines.

The Beyond Unlimited plan starts at $85 a month for one line. It costs $160 a month for two lines, $180 a month for three lines, or $200 a month for four lines. Each additional line here costs an extra $50 a month, with a maximum of 10 lines for $500 a month.

Verizon recently introduced a brand-new unlimited plan called "Above Unlimited," which starts at $95 for a single line, $180 for two lines, $140 for three lines, and $120 for four or more lines.

Verizon also now lets you pick which of its three unlimited plans you want to apply to different lines. That way, you can assign different unlimited plans according to the needs of specific users. So, in a three-line account, one line could have the $50 "Go" plan, the second line could have the $60 "Beyond" plan, and the third line could have the $70 "Above" plan. That way, you don't need to pay $70 per line for the other two lines if only one line needs the "Above" plan, for example.

None of this includes taxes and regulatory fees, though. Those vary by region, so your bill will be a bit higher than what's advertised.

And as with every major unlimited plan, all of these rates apply only if you set your billing to auto-pay every month. Otherwise, all of the prices above will cost $5 more a month per line.

How much LTE data do you actually get?

With the Go Unlimited plan, Verizon says it may temporarily slow your mobile data speeds in areas of congestion. This doesn't mean you'll constantly be slowed to a crawl when browsing the web on your phone, but it makes it especially difficult to call this a true "unlimited" plan.

With the pricier Beyond Unlimited plan, Verizon says it may temporarily slow your mobile data speeds in areas of congestion if you use more than 22 GB of LTE data in a given month.

With the new "Above" Unlimited plan, you get 75 GB of fast LTE data in a given month before it may temporarily slow your mobile data speeds in areas of congestion.

Can you stream HD video?

Not with a smartphone on the Go Unlimited plan. If you buy that, Verizon says video streamed over its mobile network will max out at a 480p resolution, which is less than high-definition. There is a visible difference in sharpness between 480p and HD, particularly on the ever-expanding and increasingly high-res displays of today's smartphones. Again, this is a clear example of limits on an "unlimited" plan.

The "Beyond" and "Above" Unlimited plan does let you stream video on smartphones in high-definition, but even that is throttled: Verizon says it's capped at a 720p resolution. This isn't as noticeable a drop-off in sharpness as going to 480p, but it's the minimum threshold for an HD video, and it's still a step back for consumers than the previous plan, on which Verizon didn't restrict video on any device at all.

If you subscribed to Verizon's original unlimited plan, you're now saddled with the Beyond Unlimited plan's 720p limit.

If you want the full HD 1080p resolution for video streams on a smartphone, Verizon lets you pay an extra $10 per line for those on the Beyond and the Above Unlimited plans.

It's worth noting that the limits above are different if you stream video to a tablet instead of a smartphone. With that, the Go Unlimited supports up to 720p video streaming, while the Beyond Unlimited plan supports up to 1080p video streaming. This makes sense given that tablets offer more screen real estate.