Verizon kills contracts and announces reasonable new mobile data plans

I am a strong believer that all mobile data plans should be unlimited and not throttled. The smartphone revolution was dealt a serious blow when cell phone carriers started limiting the data a customer could use -- developers shouldn't have to be concerned with how much data their apps use.

Today, Verizon announces that new data plans will roll out on August 13th. While they are still not unlimited, they look pretty reasonable. More importantly, however, the company is doing away with contracts altogether. In other words, it might be a great time to make the jump to the carrier that many people -- myself included -- consider to be the best in the USA.

"Verizon is simplifying further by streamlining monthly line-access charges. On the new plan, every smartphone line is $20 per month, tablet and Jetpack lines are $10 per month, and connected device lines for devices like smart watches are $5 per month, all the time. Customers always get the best options and don’t have to hunt for -- and calculate -- special discounts to get the best prices. And the S-M-L and XL data options can be shared up to 10 devices", says Verizon.

The cellular carrier further says, "new Verizon customers who want to take advantage of the new plan may do so by buying a new smartphone using Verizon's device payment option, formerly known as Verizon Edge, or by paying the retail price. Current customers can keep their existing plan or move to the new plan, with some restrictions".

As to what the "restrictions" are for existing customers, it has not been officially explained. BetaNews has reached out to Verizon for more details and will update this article when we get it.

OK, so what are these new small, medium, large and extra large data plans? Check it out below.

• Small: $30/month for 1GB of shareable data
• Medium: $45/month for 3GB of shareable data
• Large: $60/month for 6GB of shareable data
• X-Large: $80/month for 12GB of shareable data

A single person who plans to use a lot of data can get the $80 XL plan and couple it with a smartphone for a total of $100 monthly -- pretty good. While this may be a higher cost than competitors, 12GB should prevent overages and remove the stress of monitoring data usage. More importantly, however, you will get Verizon's legendary coverage and speed.

Not everyone will need the XL plan, so it is important to look at how much data you are using currently, so you don't buy more data than you need. With that said, streaming services like the wonderful Apple Music can eat more data, so keep that in mind if you are planning to utilize more streaming media in the future.

Don't worry though, if you buy too much data, or too little, you can always change it. Since it is not a contract, you can adjust the plan every month as needed. Very cool.

If you have a large family, including preteens and teens, and you plan to share the data, don't bother getting anything less than extra large!

What makes these plans particularly attractive to me, is how inexpensive and straightforward it is to add additional devices. $10 per month to get a SIM card and dedicated connection for a tablet is much more convenient than tethering from your phone. Five bucks monthly to link an LTE smartwatch? Awesome.

What do you think of Verizon's new plans? Sound off in the comments.

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