Verizon Reveals Shared Data Plans

Verizon has just unveiled the holy grail of mobile data: the shared data plan. Now you can sign up for a data plan that lets you connect several devices to the same well of gigabytes, so your phone and tablet don't need their own separate plans.

The new plans aren't exactly a great value: $50.00 nets you 1 GB to share across up to 10 separate devices, as well as voice and text. They just get more expensive from there, with 10 GB costing $100.00 a month. Beyond the price of the data, you also need to pay for each and every device connected to the line. Each tablet costs $10.00 a month extra, laptops and netbooks $20.00 a month, feature phones $20.00 a month and smartphones cost $40 extra a month. So basically you aren't actually looking at a cost savings.

In case you didn't notice, Verizon has entirely missed the point of shared data. The idea is to make everything cheaper, while reducing the amount of data that Verizon has to shuttle around. This doesn't do that.

Theoretically it shouldn't cost Verizon anything to add an extra device to an existing data plan. There should be no problem. So why not just tack on a small nominal fee for the service, say $5.00 or $10.00 per device, and then use an existing data plan?

I can understand the drive to make a profit. Maximizing income is, after all, the primary calling of a corporation. But this is exploitative and can't possibly be taken seriously. The worst part is that AT&T will likely follow suit, copying the pricing scheme wholesale.

This isn't the data dream we've been looking for, merely another way for carriers to take our money while providing us the littlest possible service.

Verizon