Some lucky folks at Verizon were recently able to upgrade to a new phone without losing their unlimited data plan. Color us totally jealous.
This was the result of a glitch, said Verizon, and not a change in policy like some may have mistakenly hoped for.
Verizon told AllThingsD on Monday that it would, however, honor the unlimited plans of customers that were able to upgrade without the dreaded limited data plan of doom.
Verizon’s normal policy is that customers who originally signed on with the provider for unlimited data service may keep their plans, as long as they keep their existing device or pay the full unsubsidized price of any new phone. No more low-cost upgrades from Verizon if you want to keep an unlimited data plan, sadly.
Verizon and AT&T continue to only offer unlimited plans to the customers that originally signed on for it back in the day when the two providers offered such plans. Neither company allows for new unlimited plans any more, preferring to cap data at various amounts in order to charge customers more money for set amounts of data throughput, as well as overage charges.
AT&T, to our knowledge, has not implemented a plan to cut unlimited customers loose when they want a new phone after their two-year contract, however. Sprint and T-Mobile continue to offer unlimited data plans in a bid to remain relevant, with T-Mobile recently removing it’s high speed data caps as well.
