Verizon’s CFO Fran Shammo spoke at the JP Morgan Media and Telecom conference this morning, providing further detail on their plans for shared or family data tiers. During his conversation, he mentioned the end of grandfathered unlimited data plans, but before that he talked specifically about these shared tiers. While he didn’t go into detail on how they would be priced or structured as far as data amounts go, he did say that Verizon will have no problem making money off of them in the very near future. 

During the JP Morgan Media and Telecom conference, Verizon’s CFO Fran “ShamWow” Shammo dropped a bomb that most of you are not going to be a fan of. During his talk, he mentioned that unlimited data plans will go away completely when the company introduces shared data plans this summer. He talked about everyone’s next upgrade cycle and how at that time, users will be forced into shared data tiers and off of the unlimited plans that you have come to love. He mentioned specifically that 3G users on unlimited data will indeed have to go into a shared plan once they upgrade to a 4G phone, but in the quote we have below, it sounds like it is going beyond that.

Multiple sources reached out to us this morning to let us know that Verizon is planning to shut down their latest Double Data promo by June 3. That gives you just under a month to lock into 4GB of data for $30, 10GB for $50, or 20GB for $80. After the 3rd, data plans will likely drop back to 2GB, 5GB and 10GB for those same prices.

Would be nice of Big Red to at least launch the Incredible 4G LTE before that time so that customers have something “2012″ to consider. With its announcement happening this morning, it should be out by then.

Cheers ___ and ___!

It’s quickly coming up on a year that Verizon introduced their tiered data plans. Back then, the idea of tiered data didn’t seem all that swell for folks who came accustomed to unlimited streaming capabilities. Unfortunately, for people who were late to the Big Red party and had to opt for one of the limited packages, they had to deal with the cards they were dealt. We want to know how many of you were lucky enough to be grandfathered in and keep your unlimited packages and who here has a data cap. If you are on a tiered plan, let us know which package you have down below – 2GB, 5GB,or the monstrous 10GB plan?

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Tiered data plans are here for good and yes, it is unfortunate. Thankfully, many of us were able to keep our unlimited plans back when tiers were introduced, however, we would be foolish to believe that we will have them forever. We haven’t been given a time frame as to when our grandfathered plans will run out, but you can imagine that it could happen in the very near future. We know that family share plans will be here this summer, which might also be a perfect opportunity for VZW to cut off unlimited for good.

When that time comes, and if family plans aren’t of interest, you will have to pick a tier. Verizon is currently running another of their “double data” promos that would get you into 4GB of data for $30 a month, a price that beats almost any other carrier’s tiers. We have already seen one of these promos come and go, so it’s not like Big Red is scared to run them from time to time. Let’s just hope that they plan to run one again on the day of reckoning.

And on that day, you may be worried that it won’t be enough. It certainly won’t be for those that tether on the regular, but if you take VZW’s word in the infographic below, most of you may have more data than you know what to do with. 

During Verizon’s Q1 earnings call today, CFO Fran “ShamWow” Shammo said that family data plans will launch this summer. He did not go into specifics on price or data bundle size, but did mention that by mid-summer, families will have an option to share a pool of data and add devices onto it easily.

As I said, we will be launching our data share plan in midsummer this year.We believe that plan, the way we have it designed, will enable our customers to easily connect other devices to that plan.

We have covered this saga for almost a year now, all the while seeing family plan calculators appear, mentions of “mid-year” launches, and overhauling of account management systems. While Big Red has taken time to work out all the kinks, it looks like they have come far enough for Shammo to express a more specific time frame publicly.

We are still unsure if this will be a positive or negative move for the industry. In a time when data prices are increasing, we can’t help but wonder if these bundles will be overpriced and under-sized. I guess we’ll know in a couple of months.

It’s no secret, Verizon is preparing to introduce Family Data plans at some point in 2012, potentially during Q2 or Q3. Company executives have mentioned it a handful of times and we have seen changes made to billing systems for months now to prepare for it. The move is definitely happening.

Today’s picture of a Family Data Usage Calculator is yet another sign that things are moving along quickly. The picture above matches the style and format of VZW’s current Data Usage Calculator and even appears to be live somewhere on their website. We poked around for a few minutes and were unable to find it, but the top bar in the window leads us to believe that it can be found. (Do work DL community.)

Not that we were expected to see them, but prices are not included in the calculator. This tool is made for one purpose, to get you to decide during the checkout process how much data you think you need since Verizon has tiered data plans now.

Family data plans could be a big deal, especially for those with multiple lines that see varying amounts of data usage. The key here is obviously the pricing – something we have nothing to compare or get a feel for since Verizon will be the first to introduce plans of this kind.

Via:  PhoneArena

Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo spoke at the Deutsche Bank Media and Telecommunications Conference on Monday and provided a few extra details that we had not yet heard on the shared or family data front. Having long been rumored to go live some time this year, Shammo was a bit more specific during his time, saying that we will see “something launched mid-year this year, from us.”

He then talked about how this won’t initially go live for everyone the day they announce it, but that it will be a “4G play” which we are assuming means that LTE customers will have the option to go with shared data first. Clearly this makes sense, as Verizon has already decided to limit the number of non-4G phones that enter their stores going forward. With an expecting 4G LTE nationwide completion rollout of “end of year 2013,” Big Red should try to incentivize LTE and smartphones, to try and rid the world of 3G and feature phones.

He did not going into pricing or specifics and I wish someone would already. This is one of those areas that no other company has moved into, so we really have no idea what to expect. Is it going to be 10GB for $100 with as many lines as you can add? Or is it going to be something completely different and more affordable? It’s anyone’s guess at this point.

On a semi-related note, Shammo also threw out some network numbers, claiming that only 5% of their customers are using their 4G LTE network, a network that covers over 200 million people. Verizon activated around 5.4 million LTE devices in 2011.

Via:  FierceWireless

Cheers pyroholtz!