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Verizon giveth…and Verizon taketh away

by: Dan -
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Verizon will be making two major changes to mobile broadband over the next month or so. The first is a bit of a downer, as DroidLife reported last week that Verizon will succumb to the inevitable and start imposing tiered fees on data for new broadband mobile customers. This impacts those that use broadband cards as well as smartphones. The fees will be:

Verizon Data plans:
• 2GB – $30/month
• 5GB – $50/month
• 10GB – $80/month

Verizon Data plans w/ tethering:
• 4GB – $50/month
• 7GB – $70/month
• 12GB – $100/month

Now this is actually $5 more per month than AT&T is offering at 200MB – $15/month, 2GB – $25/month and 4GB – $45/month.

The new fees will be rolling out in July, but it looks like those already having unlimited data will be grandfathered in. So if you want in, go get that phone/broadband card now.

The one bit of good news from Verizon last week is that they will actually be expanding their 4G LTE network into several new areas and cities on July 21st. Expansion will occur in Detroit and San Francisco, while roll-out will take place in the following areas:

California: Fresno, Sacramento, Hartford
Idaho: Boise
Indiana: Fort Wayne, Indianapolis
Michigan: Flint, Grand Rapids, Lansing
Ohio: Dayton
Pennsylvania: Erie, Harrisburg, State College
South Carolina: Greenville-Spartanburg
South Dakota: Sioux Falls
Utah: Salt Lake City-Ogden
Washington: Spokane
Wisconsin: Madison, Milwaukee
 

That is a nice boost to their available coverage, just pray you don’t go over your tiered data download cap.