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Verizon Wireless has revealed the details of its promised Share Everything Plans, which the carrier will begin offering June 28. Verizon expects the plans toand they very well mayforever change the way customers purchase wireless services, spokesperson Brenda Raney said in a June 12 blog post.
The plans allow a customer, or customers, to attach up to 10 devices to a plan with unlimited voice minutes, unlimited text, video and picture messaging and an allotted amount of data. Mobile Hotspot capabilities are also included for all devices. The account is charged for the amount of data selected: 1GB is $50, 2GB is $60, 4GB is $70, 6GB is $80, 8GB is $90 and 10GB is $100. Users needing more than 10GB can add 2GB for $10 by logging in to their accounts on the Verizon sitejust make sure to do this before going over. Data overage fees are $15 per 1GB.
After choosing the size of the data bucket, a user must also select and pay for each device thats connected to the account. Smartphones are $40 each, basic phones are $30, tablets are $10 and Jetpacks, USBs, notebooks and netbooks are $20 each, each month.
So, say two adults and a tween have a family account together. If they chose 4GB of data (Verizon has a tool that can help subscribers figure out how much data they likely use in a month) each parent has a smartphone, the kid has a feature phone and the family has a tablet, the plan would look like this each month:
4GB of data: $70
Smartphone: $40
Smartphone: $40
Feature phone: $30
Tablet: $10
MONTHLY TOTAL: $190
Verizon customers can keep their existing plans, but there is no fee or contract extension to move to a Share Everything Plan. When purchased along with a new phone, the Share Everything Plans are two-year contract plans, though customers can add more data at any time with no change to your contract, Raney told eWEEK.
There are separate plans for accounts with only feature phones or data-only devices, like Verizons Jetpack Mobile Hotspots.
Tami Erwin, Verizon Wireless chief marketing officer, said in a statement that Verizon developed the plans by first asking customers what they wanted in a wireless service plan, how they used technology in their lives and, lastly, considering how Verizon expects customers will use wireless in the future. The Share Everything Plans, said Erwin, are the outcome of that research.
Comscore, performing some research of its own, reported June 11 that one in four smartphone owners now use a tabletup from nearly 10 percent a year ago. Moreover, these tablet users are habitual video watchersmore so than smartphone ownersthough to the carriers chagrin, most tablet owners have chosen to connect their devices to a WiFi network, not wanting the hassle or expense or both of attaching it to a monthly bill.
Verizon CFO Fran Shammo, speaking at a JP Morgan conference May 16, went into some detail about this, telling the audience:
“We have a kind of constrained marketplace now around connecting more devices because everybody thinks, “Well, if I connect that device, I have to buy an additional data plan with that, that has its own tiered pricing with it.” [But] if I can add as many devices as I want and share that data plan, that is a lot more efficient from a family share perspective and from a small-business perspective. ¦ I look at that and say, okay, there is a large ramp of devices out there that [especially families] are not connecting because of the incremental cost in the model we have today. ¦ So we think we have something that is very different, very innovative, something that really hasnt been tried before in the industry.“
AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega, during an investor meeting the next day, echoed Shammos sentiments. We need to ¦ allow customers to connect those tablets to some of the existing data plans ¦ they have to be able to share them in a way that will drive more revenue for us, but also give a good deal to customers, said de la Vega.