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Comment by thetabyte | Hacker News Reader

While this is wondeful, ZDNet misses something huge picked up on Ars.

"The FCC concedes that Verizon may charge $20 per month for customers who retain grandfathered unlimited data plans." http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/07/tethering-apps-must-b...

So I won't be benefitting from this. The most ridiculous, bullshit part of all of this is that unlimited plans aren't unlimited anyway. They have "Fair Access Policy" data caps (5GB for Verizon IIRC) that are just like the modern plans with a tad higher caps. They just advertise differently. It's the same damn thing. And I don't get free tethering. Ridiculous.

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Neither did they require Verizon to refund collected fees. Since this was apparently a clear violation of the licensing agreement (i.e. it was never "correct" or "permitted" under that agreement), I'd argue the FCC should have made them make the affected consumers whole.

Now that might have sent a significant message with respect to ending this kind of bullshit, and to deliberately -- I'd argue, maliciously -- pushing the limits of what they can get away with.

I don't know how many users actually knuckled under to these fees. But even it it didn't represent an enormous amount of revenue, refunding it would have been a nice exercise for their management and administration to undergo. (I don't care how much of a "hassle" it might cause them.)

This is an excellent point, and a possible opportunity for class action lawsuit?

This is a certainty, I'm sure.

Sorry, class action lawsuits don't exist any more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Mobility_v._Concepcion

(That is, if your contract includes an arbitration clause)

"Neither did they require Verizon to refund collected fees.[...] Now that might have sent a significant message with respect to ending this kind of bullshit, and to deliberately -- I'd argue, maliciously -- pushing the limits of what they can get away with."

Your suggestion doesn't go far enough. If I were Verizon playing with these rules, I'd still try to collect fees. If were caught, I'd refund those fees and go about my business. No harm, no foul.

My point is that it's not really a penalty to just refund the money you took illegally. There must be punitive damages to make the risk of breaking the law more than just a profit or break even proposition. It should be a profit or lose more money than the risk is worth proposition for companies.

I always wondered if it'd be worth it to start a class lawsuit over "unlimited" data plans.

Class action lawsuits only ever really benefit the plaintiff counsel.

While I doubt cash rewards would be possible, simply removing the data cap would be an impressive victory.

I'm more interested in seeing that the new plans don't raise my costs for capped plan that provides the amount of bandwidth I need. If I use 2.5gb a month on my unlimited for 29.99 plan. if my wife uses 1.5gb, then the new shared everything plan raises my bill by ~20 dollars without adding any real value. I don't need unlimited talk and text.

Verizon is ending the grandfathered in unlimited plans though... (can't find the press release ATM)

Only if you buy a new phone through Verizon, I think. If you keep your existing phone, you'll still have an unlimited plan indefinitely.

I believe you can buy a phone elsewhere and maintain your plan too. It's the contract renewal that happens when you get a subsidized phone that will remove your unlimited data.

I don't remember the source on this but I believe that will only be true for 3G access plans. To use it with a 4G device, you'll need to upgrade your data plan and that means that you'll need to agree to the new terms.

That's not true. I have a 4G phone and was able to keep my existing, unlimited plan for the same price.

You can buy one at full retail price through Verizon and keep unlimited, but there's no point in that when you could buy used off eBay/Craigslist and save relative to the $650 off-contract price.

Well, the point for me was less screwing around. My phone was dying while traveling, so I went into the nearest store. They in effect offered me a $400 subsidy if I signed a new 2-year deal and gave up unlimited data. I was happy to pay the full price to avoid that and still walk out with a new phone.

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