Verizon Moving To Tiered Data Plan

Verizon will become the latest mobile carrier to offer consumers a tiered data plan on July 7 according to a recent media report.

The blog Droid Life reported that on July 7 Verizon will begin to offer customers three options: a 2GB plan at $30 per month, a 5GB plan at $50 and a 10GB at plan at $80. These will be applied to all new smartphone, 3G and 4G, subscribers.

For those who want tethering, the blog says there will be a separate option. For each package, there is an extra 2G and $20 for each of the aforementioned price offerings. For those who exceed their data cap, the penalty is reportedly $10 for every gigabyte.

Similar to AT&T, existing smartphone users will get to keep their old plan. Similarly, existing smartphone customers will be able to upgrade without having to give up an unlimited plan.

Verizon could not be reached for comment. According to AllThingsD, Verizon representative Brenda Raney did confirm it was switching to a usage based model in July.

With this move, Verizon is following with the footsteps of T-Mobile and AT&T both of which unveiled tiered data plans this past year. AT&T offers $15 a month for 200MB of data and for 2GB its $25 per month.

The tiered data plans are reportedly necessary for the mobile carriers as more and more people get data-heavy smartphones and tablets. Sprint will be the only carrier still offering an unlimited plan.

Verizon has foreshadowed this move in the past. In March, the company announced unlimited data plans were not a viable long-term strategy and said tiered data plans were coming. Recently, they introduced a data management tool, which allows users to see how much data they are using.

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