Family data plans at Verizon may be right around the corner. Not only has their CEO mentioned that 2012 could be the year that we finally see them introduced, but over the last 6 or 7 months we have seen numerous changes to the way that accounts are handled. “Account level data plans” is how Big Red is referring to them for now, which basically means that all of our accounts are being prepped for the possibility of a pool of shared data. We aren’t sure if we are weeks or months away, but after talking to a couple of sources, it certainly seems like enough changes are happening that it could be sooner rather than later.
With that said, we want some feedback from the DL community to see if anyone is even interested in the idea of having an account level or shared data plan. If you aren’t sure what that means, think of it as a bucket of data that your entire family could pull from. Say you purchase a 5GB shared plan – the 3 or 4 lines on your account can all access that. Maybe you use 2GB, your daughter uses 1GB and someone else in your family pulls another couple of GBs in a month.
Now, we have no idea what pricing or data packages would look like. They could be 5GB and 10GB plans at astronomical prices for all we know. The idea behind shared data seems like (in theory) that it would be an option that targets consumers who are looking to spend less money on data. However, we all know Verizon’s track record and probably can’t find a person in the room that would consider them to offer “cheap” or “bottom line” prices on anything. Until something is announced or leaked into the wild, it’s tough to even guess how Big Red plans to approach this. As far as we know, this idea is new and has never been done before.
Interested?
This post was last modified on February 10, 2012 11:08 am