Thanks, Verizon! Shared data plans are long overdue
We've all been sharing minutes in our family plans. This worked in an age where our phones were dumb, and the most we did was text and occasionally check the web. Times have changed though with all these smartphones in the wild, but the carriers have not. Where's our shared data plans?
Color me shocked, but Verizon is joining that charge. The nation's largest carrier said last month that it was introducing pooled data plans this year, and a new post on Engadget indicates this may be coming sooner than we think. A new section lists "account level data plans". Like your minutes you pay an account level charge, then a per line charge.
It's about time. I can think off the top of my head a handful of families or groups that I know with more than one smartphone in their plans. At $20-30 per month per phone, your phone bill gets awfully expensive real quick. I know a lot of that data is going unused, which means the carrier stands to profit more off of these data plans vis a vis a single line plan.
Sprint offers shared data on its family plans. They introduced the offering last June, however if you're looking to add a non-phone device to the plan its not possible. Those of us with both smartphones and tablet devices are still out of luck.
Contrast Verizon's news with AT&T's announcement of its price hikes for data plans earlier this month. While individually we're getting more leeway (although for more money), family smartphone plans just got even more exorbitantly expensive. That sucks. AT&T has promised us since at least July of last year that it plans to offer a shared plan, but so far has not produced.
Time to get off the pot AT&T, Verizon just showed you up. Believe me, I'll be first in line for this new plan. I'd love to have my iPad and iPhone on the same account, especially considering I'm paying you twice for data plans where most of the data gets left unused. Saving money is always a good thing.
Updated to indicate Sprint's availability of shared data on family plans.