Family data plans being considered by Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless smartphone subscribers knew it was too good to be true.
As we reported in March, it is expected that Verizon Wireless will launch tiered data plans this summer. This would be a departure from the  $30 a month unlimited data plan the carrier currently offers. In comparison, AT&T offers a $25 a month tiered data plan for 2GB of data usage.

The move shouldn’t be unexpected considering it was back in September of last year Verizon’s CEO, Ivan Seidenberg, alluded to moving to tiered data plans. The original thought was that the move would happen within six months, but clearly that transition was put off which many believe was to allow Verizon Wireless to have a competitive advantage against AT&T when the iPhone was launched back in February. Now it seems Verizon Wireless wants to finally make the transition before the next iPhone launch.

With that being said, there is a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, at least for families that may have more than one subscriber in the household. Verizon’s CFO, Fran Shammo, stated during an interview with Reuters that the carrier is looking at the creation of family data plans. The family data plans would work much like the current family plans for voice minutes which allow for a bank of minutes to be used by multiple subscribers in one household. That would be a much better deal than the current $30 a month per smartphone which I would add is a requirement by the carrier for certain smartphones.

Even with the new option of family plans, there will still be some who aren’t too pleased with the notion that their data usage is becoming limited. In reality though, the majority of subscribers would barely touch their 2GB monthly allotment. Really, the subscribers who will feel the pain are those who consistently have high monthly data usage rates. They are exactly the folks Verizon is looking to limit or have pay more for their usage.