In Less Than 1 Year Verizon Data Goes from $30/Unlimited to $50/1GB

[Commentary] Verizon Wireless announced its new pricing plans for mobile phones and data. If you mostly use your phone for data, this is bad news. Let’s look at the numbers.

Imagine that you want a new smartphone plan. You use it for phone calls and for text messaging, but most of your use is mobile data. You may not need to imagine too hard, since that is how consumer behavior has been evolving for a few years. A year ago, you probably would have chosen the 450 voice minute option ($39.99), the 250 text message option ($4.99), and the unlimited data option ($30). That’s $75 for more talk and text than you need (but the least you could buy) plus unlimited data. Fast forward to today. With Verizon’s price structure today, you would probably choose the 450 voice minute option again ($39.99), the 1000 text message bucket ($10 - Verizon eliminated its lower buckets so you have to pay for more messages even if you do not need them), and 2GB of data ($30 - sorry, Verizon eliminated unlimited data in 2011). That’s $80 for more talk and text than you need plus 2GB of data.