Shared Data Plans Likely Coming to Verizon in 2012

"We have been working on this for a couple of years. Getting to one bill and getting to account-level pricing is our goal."

I don't see how this takes years of planning to figure out. I think more to the point, he means, "We've ignored the ideas for years to lock as many people into contracts as possible before the pressure from foreign companies made us look bad for not offering it. Now that they are making us look like evil money grubbers, we feel it's time to offer this option as soon as we can figure out how to squeeze you as much as we can on a shared plan."

It's a great idea, and I hope everyone follows suit. My sarcasm aside, why can't I just share my data from my iPhone with my iPad period? Same price, same plan... and ding me if I go over.

Why do i get the feeling that this won't help consumers and end up being more expensive in the long run?

With all of our advances and infrastructure improvements, there really is no excuse not to have unlimited data on these Apple devices. Things like shared data are just ploys to keep the sheep moving.

The excuses of how data-intensive our iPhones and the alike have become is hogwash. They act as if they have not been upgrading towers, installing fiber optics around the world, and raising prices.

What a joke.

Good idea. I'd seriously consider switching to Verizon if this became reality.

EDIT: But then, they'll probably charge more right? Will have to crunch some numbers at that time I guess.

I seriously doubt it's an effort for the carrier to charge less.

It will be interesting to see how the pricing structure is for this if it happens.

:apple:

If you think that this will be available spanning phones and tablets under and "unlimited" data plan then you are dreaming. You would see either an unlimited plan with an extra per device cost on top or sharing between devices at no cost but on a capped plan only.

The US seems to be behind Denmark (Europe) on all this smartphone-3G-Data stuff.

In Denmark every single carrier allows tethering. Several are offering multiple SIM cards on a single plan (at no extra cost). Around 5GB Data is included with most plans (even the cheap ones). 10GB only costs a little more. Almost all carriers offer data-unlimited plans. Several carriers are offering 4G now.

The monthly plan I'm on includes the following:
6 hours of talk
6 GB of data
Free/Unlimited SMS
Free/Unlimited MMS
Tethering

... and it's only 149 DDK. That's around $27.00
(11 hours of talk + 11 GB of data is around $32.50)
I pay on a monthly basis - and I can quit at any time.

howbout att and verizon stop charging for tethering like euros? wtf, I pay for 2 gigs, why do they care what I do with it. That' like charging extra to be able to use speakerphone or a bluetooth headset for voice, it should be illegal!!!!!!

I wish you could buy a set amount of data that didn't expire in 30 days. If it took you 2 months to use it, so be it. You pay for it and it is yours to use no matter how long it takes.

THIS. If this were possible I'd probably buy a 3G iPad and a few gigs of data. Even if they were expensive, it'd be nice to buy data without having to worry about using it all before some expiration date.

At my typical data usage rates, 2GB of iPad data would probably last me 6-7 months. Almost all my regular iPad use is where I have Wifi.

Of course they won't do this, though, as nearly everyone will pay a lot less, so they'll lose money.

EDIT: I'll note that prepaid wireless carriers "sort of" do this with minutes. You buy a set number of minutes, and typically have a year to use them. There's still a limit (probably to keep accounts from lingering forever if abandoned) but a year is a lot more reasonable than a month. I wish providers would think of data as a consumable, rather than a service.