I have recently noticed Verizon running a lot of new ads on Hulu showing a new data share plan allowing up to ten devices to be share a single data access plan. After reading Marguerite Reardon’s July 6 article “Is Verizon ‘shaking down’ customers with family plan?” I could begin to see some of the problems associated with changing to this service. If you are a current unlimited data plan customer now think about the fact that by adding more people to a shared, fixed size data plan might cause a problem with data overage charges for you little group of people. You need to look carefully at how everyone is using their devices and how much of the device usage is through the cellular network vs. your local WiFi access. Personally, I am well under any the plans because I don’t do any streaming unless I am on a WiFi network. I am very careful about that. But are the people in your plan that responsible? You might get stuck with a large bill one month because someone on your plan decided to watch the entire episode list of Buffy the Vampire Slayer while at the beach. If this isn’t a worry then maybe you will want to consider this new plan type but remember this is Verizon’s way to charge you for your usage of their data network just like a utility company charges you for the use of electricity, gas or water. While I don’t think the concept is especially a bad thing it will directly impact your pocketbook.
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Sunday, July 8, 2012 at 10:00AM 
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