{"id":6123,"date":"2010-01-15T12:38:29","date_gmt":"2010-01-15T19:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wapreview.com\/?p=6123"},"modified":"2010-01-15T12:38:29","modified_gmt":"2010-01-15T19:38:29","slug":"data-plans-now-required-on-verizon-3g-feature-phones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wapreview.com\/6123\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Plans Now Required On Verizon 3G Feature Phones"},"content":{"rendered":"

$\"Verizon$ Verzion is making a number of\u00a0 pricing changes<\/a> effective Monday, January 18.\u00a0 There’s some good news for heavy talkers, unlimited voice pricing is being reduced from $99.99 to $69.99 and unlimited talk and messaging is dropping\u00a0 from $119.99 to $89.99. Family plans see similar reductions.\u00a0 Prices for voice plans\u00a0 other than unlimited aren’t changing<\/p>\n

However the news on the data front is not so good. A data plan will be required for anyone switching to most 3G capable non-smartphones (a.k.a. ” feature phones”) as either a phone change or a new line of service.\u00a0 There will be two available data packages; 25 MB for $9.99 \/month ($500\/GB) and “unlimited” (capped at 5 GB) for $29.99\/month.\u00a0 The current $19.95\/month, 75 MB option\u00a0 has been dropped.\u00a0 Smartphone purchasers will continue to be required to add the $29.95 unlimited option. Current users of 3G feature phones will not be affected unless they switch phones or renew their contracts.<\/p>\n

On the one hand mandatory data plans might encourage users to actually use the web on their phones since they are paying for whether they use it or not.\u00a0 25 MB isn’t much data so users who do more than a little browsing will quickly burn through the initial allowance.\u00a0 Verizon did reduce the overage charge on the $9.99 plan from 50 cents\/MB\u00a0 to a semi-reasonable 20 cents\/MB ($200\/MB).<\/p>\n

On the other hand it seems nasty to raise the monthly cost for customers who want to switch to one of Verizon’s hot selling feature 3G phones like the LG Env Touch, Env3 and Chocolate Touch. I suspect that the majority of Verizon feature phone buyers do not use data and that many opt for a 3G phone not because it has 3G, but for styling,\u00a0 “cool” factor or\u00a0 other features like a better camera, music player or QWERTY keyboard.<\/p>\n

I actually think that these changes could hurt Verizon’s bottom line.\u00a0\u00a0 Being forced to purchase a data plan that they have no intention of using with a recurring cost of $240 over the life of a two year contract won’t help with customer satisfaction or loyalty.\u00a0 It might discourage quite a few users from upgrading and thus extending their contracts.\u00a0 Out of contract customers represent potential churn, especially if competitors offer more desirable phones at a lower monthly cost. A lot depends on what the competition does.\u00a0 AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile currently do not require data plans on feature phones and their optional data plans offer better value than Verizon’s. Unlimited data for 3G feature phones is $10\/month on T-Mobile and $15\/month on AT&T and Sprint.\u00a0 Assuming the others don’t raise data rates or make data plans mandatory on non-smartphones, switching operators could start looking mighty attractive to Verizon feature phone users whether they use data or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"