Verizon Again Cracks Down on Unlimited Users, Bumps Upgrade Fee

Like AT&T, Verizon has waged a protracted war against the grandfathered unlimited data customers it retained after switching to entirely metered mobile broadband plans back in 2011. From blocking certain services from working on unlimited plans to throttling these users only after a few gigs of consumption, carriers have worked tirelessly to kill off these remaining users.

Verizon wound up being the most successful at "convincing" these users to ditch these plans, a 2014 study claiming just 22% of Verizon's unlimited data customers remained on the network -- a number that's surely dramatically lower by now.

Now Verizon's again escalating its enforcement efforts against the heaviest of these users.

Several different Verizon employees posting to Reddit say that the company will begin warning users that consume more than 200 GB per month that they must switch to a metered plan or face account termination.

"High-usage Unlimited Plan customers get notices to migrate On 1/5, 8,200 unlimited plan customers averaging more than 200 GB of usage per month will begin receiving notices that they must migrate to a new Verizon Plan by 2/16/17 or their lines will be disconnected," states the internal notice posted by the insider.

As part of this escalation Verizon had already been blocking some unlimited customers from using their SIM cards in mobile hotspots and wireless routers like the Novatel / Verizon T1114.

There's a few other changes being made by Verizon in the new year, according to the employees. Two different Verizon employees also say the company is completely getting rid of two-year phone contracts, and will be bumping its upgrade fee from $20 to $30 starting January 5. Happy New Year from Verizon?