Today, Verizon Wireless announced their much anticipated shared data plans.
Shared data allowances range from 1 GB to 10 GB. Monthly device costs are $30 for basic phones, $40 for smartphones, $20 for notebooks/netbooks and $10 for tablets. As is currently true, tablets do not require a long-term contract. All plans include unlimited minutes and messages. Data costs are:
Shared Data Monthly Account Access
1 GB $50
2 GB $60
4 GB $70
6 GB $80
8 GB $90
10 GB $100
You can keep your existing plan until you upgrade one of your devices. There is no fee or contract extension to move to the new Share Everything Plans. There is more information and a calculator to figure out which plan is best for you at .
We have three iPhones, one basic phone and two iPads. We typically use about 5 GB of data each month. We currently have two iPhones with unlimited data usage and one with 2 GB of data. Our iPad plans are for 1 GB. With the new plan, we would pay $170 in device fees. 6 GB of data tacks on an additional $80. Add fees and insurance to that and it’s more than we are paying now so there is no real incentive for us to switch until we have to.
I tried out Verizon’s calculator to see what plan they recommended and, no matter what usage I entered, the recommendation was always the 10 GB plan. I played around with their calculator some and found that, unless you are a heavy data user, their recommendation is typically 2 GB for each smartphone or tablet in your plan.
What I truly do not understand is why are there different prices for adding different types of devices to the plan? I can understand that adding an additional device to a plan should incur a small fee, but – if the minutes and texts are unlimited AND the data is shared between everything – why should the price for a smartphone, basic phone, or hotspot be any different at all? Darn you Verizon and your fuzzy math!