Is it true you lose grandfathered Unlimited when you eventually upgrade/get new phone?

[scotchxx]

One of the few reasons I have stuck with Verizon. With recent news that Verizon has yet again, told  Nokia to screw, I am looking at my options.

I was told by someone the other day that my current grandfathered Unlimited data plan will go away when I eventually get a new phone. Is this true?   If so, that news along with possible no Nokia phones for Verizon, I may just have to head over to ATT. 

[mrpearsoy]

This is all over the forums. search is your friend. You will lose unlimited if you tke the subsidy 2 year pricing for a new device. If you want to keep unlimited you can if you purchase the device at full retail or bring a device from elsewhere. ATT also has tiered data, so you will not gain anything by switching unless you really want that new-untested - untried and true new Nokia windows 8 device. but that is your choice. Threatening to leave for another provider doesnt ruffle the feathers of anyone in this peer to peer forum.

[rcschnoor]

No, you can upgrade AND keep your unlimited data. You cannot, however, accept a subsidy from Verizon to purchase a phone at a ~60%-80% discount and keep your unlimited data.

[OutlawFirebird1]

Once you go to get a new phone with a 2 year contract, they will force you to get one of the new shared data plans, only way to keep unlimted is to buy the phone outright. Also you can not upgrade to 4g without lossing your unlimited data.

[SickFreak]

I asked a store manager about this a few weeks ago.  Here's the basic overview of what I was told:

1. If you get a "free" phone and sign up for a new two year contract, you forfeit your grandfathered plan.
2. If you get any phone that's 4G, even if you buy it yourself, you forfeit your grandfathered plan.
3. In the next year (2013,) if you make any changes to your plan, you forfeit your grandfathered plan.
4. By mid 2013  (or maybe as late as early 2014,) they will be going through and finding all of the old unlimited data contracts still in place and force people to go to new contracts. (Remember, they're all month-to-month, so they can be cancelled at any time by either party.)

Of course, that manager may have had their facts wrong or plans could change based on the competition.

[scotchxx]

Well, it does look like they're going to get them all dealt with, one way or another. These stupid new plans are idiotic. Hey, you get all these cool features of the smart phone, watch music, stream music, etc. But now you will  have to pay even more if you actually take advantage of them. Oh, and yes, we'll still charge for texting too.

[mrpearsoy]

scotchxx wrote:

Well, it does look like they're going to get them all dealt with, one way or another. These stupid new plans are idiotic. Hey, you get all these cool features of the smart phone, watch music, stream music, etc. But now you will  have to pay even more if you actually take advantage of them. Oh, and yes, we'll still charge for texting too.

Um...so if Honda says "you can get leather and navigation, and lane departure,and touchscreen to stream aduio, xm satellite but thats an extra cost over a base model" thats wrong? As much as I hate this word, I going to say it anyway: your logic is "UNACCEPTABLE". So they (VZW) are supposed to offer all these features, but you think it should be free or unlimited? well guess what, if you dont want or need it, voice it with getting a basic phone, or go to another provider that does the SAME THING!

[OutlawFirebird1]

say honda sells you a base car at the same price as a fully loaded one, your ok with that ?  thats what going on, were paying more money for less data. 80 bucks a month gets you 6gb of data, thats close to what my current unlimted plan is.

[Tidbits]

OutlawFirebird1 wrote:

say honda sells you a base car at the same price as a fully loaded one, your ok with that ?  thats what going on, were paying more money for less data. 80 bucks a month gets you 6gb of data, thats close to what my current unlimted plan is.

Doesn't work that way... Start your own carrier and offer unlimited internet.  Get yourself about a 100M customers and see how much you end up paying out to Comcast, Time Warner, and other ISP landline providers.  At some people with the data usage of your customers you may end up losing money per unlimited data.  Then let's see how long you offer unlimited.  Sprint has already been on record with today's usage unlimited is unsustainable, and they will move away from it.  Right now they don't have enough customers that push them over that threshold.

[soupcannon]

This was all over the news last Christmas and went into effect in April , way to stay in top of things also there is a thirty dollar upgrade fee that has been in effect for a while too sinse you don't pay attention