I am a data hog I guess.... Should I be worried about the Verizon data police?

We have 2 UDP lines and this is our only internet at home. No available DSL or cable internet in our area and satellite is too expensive and slow. Up until September our data usage ran around 25-35 GB per month for the 2 lines. Occasional Netflix movie, basic surfing, Sirius/XM streaming, etc.

Now our son who has just left the Navy is home and Sept. usage was 110 GB. So far this month with 4 billing days left we are at 130 GB. To be fair I just had surgery and am at home for at least 2 weeks, so I decided to stream an entire season of Reign on netflix with 24 episodes. LOL.

Should I be worried about the data police? I am sure that we are in the top 0.5% of users in my area! I did read that they are not throttling data as planned but should we keep it down under 100 GB? What is Verizon really doing about it?

I guess I should feel bad but then again we have been paying the full boat for at least 3 years which includes 2 $30 wifi hotspot feature charges plus the $30 data plan for each line. Our bill is $203 per month with the 2 lines. We did just upgrade my sons dumb phone to an S4 mini with the $60 2GB line. That will make the bill more like $270. Our bill would be so much more if we paid for overages.

Please discuss or rant or whatever....

Thanks!

 

Thanks a bunch.

Except now as of last night neither of the hotspot features works on either phone. Last night the error was "cannot connect no data connection available" This morning it says "fatal system error" Its on both phones so it can't be the phone. Right? Gonna go to the verizon store today.

 

Well I hate my verizon store so I called the *611 again today (called last night but they had to transfer me to Tier 2 support and I did not want to hang on). Magically just as I am on the phone with the tech it started working without even telling her my problem. Amazing.

But I did get a few tidbits of info from her. It seems she has a UDP also and makes sure she keeps it, so she understands that us having no other internet available it is important to keep the UDP. She also checked into how much a More Everything 100GB shared plan cost would be and its $375!!!! Holy crap! No thanks and I will keep my UD thank you. She also said that people who upgrade and lose their UDP can get a plan called Verizon Max that is 6GB for $30 but they have to do it within the first 30 days of losing the UDP. According to her - and I take this with a grain of salt - I will always and forever have my unlimited data plan as long as I do not do a subsidized upgrade. There is no plan to ever take away the UDPs from those of us who are left.

FWIW I guess.

 

Hey thanks for that info Unforgiven. That kinda makes sense because last billing cycle there were evenings that the speed was very slow (1.5mbps) on my phone because it is the one that has the most data use. But that sounds like throttling to me. I am not sure how much heavy use in northern Idaho can be though.... LOL

 

Yes we are pretty limited but Sprint, AT&T and others are here and offer 4G. Problem with them is there are too many mountains around and everyone but Verizon sucks for actually getting cell service if you are not right in town.

Makes sense about the usage. Before our last two mega high usage billing periods I never saw a lag in speed even when we used 30-40 GBs. Thanks again!

 

Just trying to keep this info up to date. The other twin was home on leave at Christmas and we added another smart phone to our plan because he will now be stationed in the US. The ding dong at Verizon that added the one in Sept. for his brother said he needed his own $60 plan. Well that is not the case and we now have their 2 lines ($9.99+$30) with 2GB each added plus our 2 UL data that are all sharing our Loyalty Plan 550 mins. Total bill is about $260 per month. Data usage today with 7 days left is 196GB. Checked into how much a 100Gb plan is and its now $750 per month. Crazy....