Everybody loves cheap, grandfathered unlimited data plans. Everybody, that is, except carriers. While some carriers have tried to knock grandfathered customers off their unlimited plans through upgrade terms or new contract terms, Verizon has opted to merely increase the price to offset the price of the extra data that these customers can eat and often do. The first wave of increases was back in 2015, followed by a second wave in early 2016. Any customers that missed the boat the first two times will inevitably be caught when the third wave rolls out. According to a recently leaked screenshot, the third wave could be coming as soon at August 21st.
The screenshot shows a message allegedly delivered to a Verizon customer, informing them that all of the unlimited data lines on their plan will be subject to a $20 per month price increase under the terms of the rollout. The increase is supposed to go into effect on August 21st, but will not be showing up on customers’ bills until their current contract is up, which means that customers who just renewed are in for a year or more of unlimited data at the old prices. After all of the contracts affected by this third wave are up and eat the price increase, there should be no Verizon customers left with unlimited data plans at the old price. The new price of $49.99 per line of unlimited data will, at that point, be in effect for all unlimited customers.
While the communication in the screenshot looks official enough, Verizon has yet to confirm or deny the timetable shown for the alleged increase, leaving this as unconfirmed and essentially a rumor. If it is official, however, unlimited customers who managed to miss the first two increases will be forced onto the bandwagon in the very near future. It should be noted that this will only apply to grandfathered unlimited data customers; Verizon has not sold truly unlimited data plans for quite some time, and their new plans that recently rolled out see current offerings topping out at 100 gigabytes to share between everybody on the plan for $450 per month.