2017 has been off to a fast and furious start with new tech gadgets, cheaper home automation and more apps than we can handle. I make many predictions about technology, but one thing snuck up on me this year. Verizon unlimited data is back! T-Mobile has had it for a while, but many folks ignored it because of the company’s perceived bad coverage. For many of you who have teenagers, you know how important this price and data breakthrough is for your monthly bill. Between SnapChat, Instagram, and all of the other online services, data usage skyrockets these days, and there weren’t any options for capping the bill until now. In a similar shocking move, and to counter Verizon, AT&T is now offering an unlimited plan as well. To make it easy for everyone, let me break down the costs and also share some of the small print:
• Verizon – $80 a month and unlimited data. Once you hit a level of usage that Verizon deems excessive, it will slow down the speed on that device. If you have multiple phones and devices on the plan, the speeds remain the same on the devices not deemed excessive.
• AT&T has an unlimited $60-a-month plan. There is one catch; the speeds are limited to 3Mbps, which in this day and age is not very fast.
• T-Mobile’s unlimited plan is $80 a month but will be jumping to $95 a month. If you use more than 28GBs of data, they will slow your device down during peak and congestion times.
At the end of the day, for all of the heavy data users out there, we are the real winners. Providers have saddled us with a cap on data plans for a long time, and we have all heard stories of people going over and getting slammed because of the cost. For most of us, that practice has ended.
As always, let me know your thoughts. I would love to hear your feedback, or if you would like to make a suggestion for a future article, reach out to me at Anthony@helpmepcs.com or on Twitter @PCS_AnthonyM.
