For reasons unknown, Verizon has decided to kill off the Data Usage widget that is included in the My Verizon app. Over the next couple of days, users who have the app installed will be notified that an update will remove the widget from their phone, but that they can remove it themselves today, if they’d like. It’s a puzzling move because Share Everything will be here in 2 days, which means people will need to know the current status of their data usage now more than ever. In the mean time, they are recommending that you dial #DATA to track usage. 

Whether you are ready for them or not, Verizon’s Share Everything plans will be here this Thursday, June 28. Most of you are probably thoroughly schooled on them at this point, but we wanted to take one last opportunity to make sure you are all up to speed, since this move by Big Red marks a drastic change to the wireless game, one that other carriers will likely follow in the near future.

This weekend, I was fortunate enough to spend a ton of time with a big group of friends and family (30-50 people) thanks to a graduation celebration for my brother. During that time, smartphones and wireless service were brought up quite often (since that’s what I do for a living), leading to some interesting conversations around Verizon’s new Share Everything plans. What I gathered over the last 4 days, was that these plans benefit very few people, and that no one I talked to had suggested to Verizon that this become an option, as was suggested through their announcement. 

Now that Share Everything data plans have started to soak in and most of you understand all of your options, we have a couple of important questions to ask. You know you can keep unlimited data if you’d like, but that means you have to buy phones at full price after June 28. Some of you may not want to save up the cash to do that and will either use up a last upgrade before the 28th or will bite the bullet and give up unlimited data in order to get a subsidized phone later on in the future. We want to know what your plans are. Full priced phones? Use the last upgrade before the 28th? Give up unlimited data? Willing to switch carriers?

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After yesterday’s news that Verizon’s new Share Everything data plans would arrive by June 28, we dove into every nook and cranny of them to try and help you understand this drastic change in wireless carrier service. We talked about keeping unlimited data, pre-ordering the Galaxy S3, corporate discounts under the new structure, and even tossed together a step-by-step guide to help you decide if you would save money or not by switching off of your current plan. Since there was a ton of info out there, we thought we’d throw it together for you in one post for quick reference. 

One of the questions that came up this morning after Verizon announced their new Share Everything data plans, was “How will corporate discounts work?” We now have the answer thanks to the document above. As you can see in the B2B section, Big Red will apply the corporate employee discounts to the Monthly Account Access portion of your bill and not the Monthly Line Access fee. So basically that means that you get a discount off of your shared data package and not off of your individual device monthly fee.

Another interesting note up there has to do with tablets. Verizon will no longer be subsidizing or discounting tablets, which makes sense since you can simply add on a tablet to your account for $10. What we will have to watch for now is whether or not full retail pricing of tablets comes down. I can’t imagine that many of you are interested in paying $900 for a XYBOARD.

For additional details about these plans that we haven’t already covered, feel free to hit up this Google+ post.

Cheers ___!

It’s time to bust out those calculators. With Verizon announcing their new Share Everything plans, most of you are under the impression that these aren’t the great deals that Big Red is attempting to lead you into believing. From what I can tell at first glance, these plans will be amazing for families who talk on the phone a lot and text message like champs, yet rarely get on the internet or use data intensive apps. For those like me, that rarely make calls and use free instant messaging services (aka no text plan), but pound the data, these plans are the last thing I would ever choose. Each of our situations are different, so we would love to see what those are.

Let’s do two things here. First, walk through our step-by-step guide of Verizon’s new Share Everything plans and calculate a bill for your account based on these new numbers. And try not to automatically choose the 10GB plan to jack up the price, but look at your last 3 months of data usage to get yourself an average. Once you have done that, compare it to your current bill and then vote in the poll. We would love to know if you would save money, spend more, or stay the same with these new plans.

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We see in the comments that some users are freaking out a bit and are wondering if they will be forced onto one of Verizon’s new Share Everything plans. The answer is no. Let me say that one more time, so that hopefully, it can be the last. You do not have to switch to Verizon’s Share Everything plans. With that said, if you want to keep your unlimited data plan and current minute structure, there are some things you need to know.