Verizon to Kick 'Excessive' Unlimited Users From the Network Updated with Verizon statement below defining "excessive" as 100 GB or higher. A new report suggests that Verizon will soon begin disconnecting grandfathered unlimited data users that consume "an extraordinary amount of data." When Verizon launched shared data buckets back in 2011, the company grandfathered most of its unlimited data customers at the time. But like AT&T, Verizon has been launching a not-so-subtle war on those customers ever since -- using every trick in the book to get them to switch to shared, metered plans.

Last fall that included jacking up the price of its unlimited data plans for these customers by $20 per line. Now, Droid Life has learned that Verizon's taking things further with a new push that will disconnect unlimited customers Verizon deems heavy users. Though just how much data we're talking about hasn't been made clear in the report: quote: According to sources of ours, Verizon is working on an Unlimited Data Plan Migration for the highest unlimited data users on their network. Starting tomorrow, July 21, Verizon will begin notifying users who have been flagged as using that “extraordinary” amount via mailer and through bill messages and explain to them their options to stay with Big Red. What are their options? Verizon is forcing these out of contract “extraordinary” data users to move to The Verizon Plan (a tiered plan) by August 31 or they will shut down the line. If they don’t take that option by August 31 and their line is disconnected, they will have up to 50 days to re-activate, but of course, they can only do so by switching over to The Verizon Plan. Note there's not all that many unlimited customers left on Verizon's network, as the company has been hugely successful in driving them all to metered plans. A Update: Verizon gave us the following statement on these new changes: quote: These users are using data amounts well in excess of our largest plan size (100 GB). While the Verizon Plan at 100 GB is designed to be shared across multiple users, each line receiving notification to move to the new Verizon Plan is using well in excess of that on a single device. Note there's not all that many unlimited customers left on Verizon's network, as the company has been hugely successful in driving them all to metered plans. A study from 2014 found that just 22% of Verizon users remained on grandfathered unlimited plans, compared to 44% for AT&T and 78% for both Sprint and T-Mobile (who both advertise unlimited as a differentiator). Verizon also leads at getting users to pay more: 51% of Verizon Wireless customers pay the company at least $100 per month, compared to 47% at Sprint, 46% at AT&T, and 33% at T-Mobile.: Verizon gave us the following statement on these new changes:







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Most recommended from 132 comments

athornfam2

join:2013-09-25

York, PA 21 recommendations athornfam2 Member What a Joke What a joke for 2016. When these companies are trying to pull lets do 5G that can push 1.2Gbps Theoretically to a handset or modem they "don't have the infrastructure or bandwidth" for this service then if they can't handle 4G LTE speeds. This is not 1998-2007. We have a 10GB-100GB backbones...

keithps

Premium Member

join:2002-06-26

Soddy Daisy, TN 18 recommendations keithps Premium Member Plans are worse I'm still grandfathered in unlimited and I recently considered switching to a data plan. Turns out, going from unlimited to an 8GB plan saved me a whole $7/month. Hardly worth it for the risk if I have a high data month.

woody7

Premium Member

join:2000-10-13

Torrance, CA ·Time Warner Cable

·Charter

10 recommendations woody7 Premium Member hmm .............. This is something the FCC or FTC should look into. I mean unlimited is um well unlimited.



"un·lim·it·ed



nlimidd/

adjective

not limited or restricted in terms of number, quantity, or extent."



seems simple to me... oh wait what about the Willy Wonkaese text fine print...................../ cue they should have a bla bla bla account....................../ barncii

join:2012-11-18 5 recommendations barncii Member Open platform provisions set by the FCC

This is basically like when verizon said they would start to throttle unlimited users a year or so ago and changed their minds real quick when the FCC started asking questions. looks like the FCC should start asking questions again!

And for all those people who say that people are using too much on unlimited plans (I'm on unlimited and average about 8 gigs a month) just remember this. verizon will let you use all you want even on tiered plans as long as your checkbook is open. 100, 200 whatever it is as long as they can rip you on price/gig you can consume away. Doesn't this go against the agreement they made with the FCC when they purchased the 700 Mhz spectrum? » motherboard.vice.com/rea ··· ted-data This is basically like when verizon said they would start to throttle unlimited users a year or so ago and changed their minds real quick when the FCC started asking questions. looks like the FCC should start asking questions again!And for all those people who say that people are using too much on unlimited plans (I'm on unlimited and average about 8 gigs a month) just remember this. verizon will let you use all you want even on tiered plans as long as your checkbook is open. 100, 200 whatever it is as long as they can rip you on price/gig you can consume away. Oceanside426

join:2012-07-15

Oceanside, NY 4 recommendations Oceanside426 Member time to make a petition seriously I'm not a Verizon customer anymore.. but if this happens I can see the other carriers getting the same idea, and thats not gonna fly.. we need to make this corporate greed stop..............

r81984

Fair and Balanced

Premium Member

join:2001-11-14

Katy, TX 3 recommendations r81984 Premium Member ??There is no such thing as excessive users How can they define a limit for usage?? Everyone uses their connection differently.

There literally is no way to have "excessive" usage. It is impossible. wkm001

join:2009-12-14 2 recommendations wkm001 Member I thought this would happen long ago To avoid the negative press over a long period of time I thought Verizon would force these users to tiered plans long ago. Just rip off the band-aid.



Verizon at least needs to do what AT&T has done. Offer "unlimited" at a reasonable price and say you may be throttled after X amount. Verizon is certainly capable of offering a plan like this. Verizon knows what price they could offer it for.



100,000,000 x 22% = A lot of subscribers.