A Positive Post on the New Shared Plan.

Question

So I would like to give some figures to everyone, and I wanted to make my own post.
Current Vs New.
Current Family Plan
4 People, 3 Smart phones 1 Flip phone
40 $ for the 4 lines
170$ for the Unlimited Minutes ( just checked, that is what it says for if i changed to unlimited.)
30$ unlimited Texting for all phones
90$ (at least) for data plan. (will assume they have 2GB package for sake of comparasion)
Total = 330$ (we will leave out any other fees as we are just worried about plans)
So I would like to take a moment to talk about the current billing set up. In reality right now, every Smart phone costs 40 Bucks. 10$ for the Phone line and 30 (at least) for data. So the price for a smart phone remains the same in the new set up. The basic phone will be 30 bucks, which is a 20$ increase. As it is now, you have to play for Voice and texting separately. As you see in our current set up, that is a lot of money.  Now lets move on to the new set up.
4 People, 3 Smart phones 1 Flip phone.
120$ for the smart phones
30 for the flip phone
100$ for 10 GB which includes Mobile hot spot.
Total 250$
Bit of a difference there, and in a good way if you ask me. They are getting 4GB MORE than they had before, and it will be shared between EVERYONE. So they now have 4 GB to mobile hotspot their laptops/tablets or whatever. With this pricing, why not upgrade that flip phone to a smart phone for 10 bucks a month and still save money.
You people that are using 10 GB or more are using sites that use Verizon's bandwidth for free. If you truly want to blame this price hikes, blame the services you use. Why do you think Netflix can stream videos to you for 5$ a month? Because they don't bite the bullet in bandwidth pricing. And so many ppl use these services, that it causes Verizon and companies to buy more equipment. This equipment is not cheap, we are talking about single routers that cost millions. You can only fit so much data down 1 strand of fiber.
I am glad to discuss this if you can bring valid arguments!!

Answer 1

      Hello and glad to offer a comparison of my own situation as this whole idea is so relative to each of us :
   my bill right now will be (obscene as it is) approx.  272.00  it includes:
3 smartphones with data:
1 @ unlimited
1 @ 2gb
1@  4gb
2 basic phones (no data)
1 wifi  mobile hotspot device @ 5gb 
700 shared minutes  (which we never exceed)
Unlimited texts     for the record I should say that I have not used more than 2 gb on my unlimited data plan, so for the sake of discussion I will  calculate that we have access to 13 gb  (for all practical purposes)
  Under the new (and improved) plan:
3 smartphones @ 40.00
2 basic phones @ 30.00
1 hotspot          @ 20.00
Data plan with 10 gb = 100.00   
At this point I am looking at: 300.00 and 10 gb data as opposed to:  272.00  for 13 gb
Again this analysis is relative to my own situation and doesn't even consider that I would be giving up my unlimited data, of which I am not an abuser.  In the future I will need to add one additional smartphone and then my total would be similar in dollars but would allow us 5 more gb. 2 of my phones will be teens, and so the restrictive data allowance wold not favor me in the least. So to conclude, I get considerably less data for similar money OR similar data for more money. And in this age of ever more increasing amounts of services that are data-centric, we will feel the pinch. Now I know that people on here will offer counseling as to how I can manage my use of data, but I neither need advice nor counsel as this issue. My hope was that these new plans would be an improvement or would offer some relief, but bring nothing positive to my table. I love a logical discussion and although I can be as passionate as anyone can be, you asked for logic and this is mine.
    P.S. If I were to increase my own data use to the commonly referred level 5 gb (which is where people have observed throttling) then there is 3 more gb lost to this brilliant plan. I only use what I need in terms of data and it varies, so most people find their 'comfort zone' when they consider which plans to choose. Offering unlimited voice to people is a losing proposition as an incentive to get on board this plan. While some of the excitement is from people thinking they will be forced onto the plan, vz at this point has said they will allow existing customers to keep what they have (for now). I despise this company even though I have no other serious option, so I will play hardball and continue to encourage people to stay engaged, fully educate themselves, participate in advocacy efforts, pay attention to Congressional business as relates to both telecommunications and net neutrality.