In July 2011, Verizon Wireless dumped its option to get a $29.99 a month unlimited data plan for any new Verizon customers. Existing subscribers were able to keep using their unlimited plan under a grandfather clause and this included upgrading to a new smartphone that connected to Verizon's faster LTE network.
Now it looks like those customers will have to look elsewhere for a true unlimited data plan. Fierce Wireless reports that Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo confirmed today that existing unlimited data customers will soon have to move to a tiered data plan sometime later this summer.
According to the story, Shammo said the move will be made when Verizon launches its shared data plan, saying, "A lot of our 3G base is on unlimited. When they migrate off 3G they will have to go to data share. That is beneficial to us." He added, "Everyone will be on data share." Shammo made these remarks today as part of a speech at the J.P. Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom conference.
So far Verizon has not announced exactly when its data sharing plan will go into effect nor how much it will cost. When this change does happen, that will mean Sprint will be the only one of the four major US wireless carriers with a true unlimited data plan for its smartphones.
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