As of late carriers seem to be hopping on the unlimited data wagon, but Verizon’s version is slightly different from the rest of the competition. Instead of announcing a new plan that provides super fast LTE data, the company has opted to include a feature it calls Safety Mode in all of its plans free of charge.
Safety Mode isn’t anything new, though. The company originally announced the feature back in July and, for $5 extra a month, customers could have access to unlimited data at very low 2G speeds (128kbps to be precise) as soon as their LTE data ran out, therefore avoiding the carriers overage charges. As well as this, it also guaranteed customers would have internet access, albeit it extremely slow internet, in the case of an emergency, hence the name Safety Mode. Previously, customers who paid for either the XL or XXL plans received Safety Mode for free, while the rest of the network’s customers had to pay for the service. On September 6th this will change, though, with all data plans now featuring Safety Mode as a standard, therefore saving you $5 a month if you currently pay for the feature and also helping you avoid charges for exceeding your data limit. If you want extra data at LTE speeds you will still need to fork out an extra $15 per extra gigabyte of data.
In case you are unaware of Verizon’s current data plans, the carrier offers a total of five data plans ranging from the smaller S plan to the larger XXL plan. With these plans, Verizon offers the choice of 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB or 24GB and all plans include carryover data and the new Safety Mode, while the XL and XXL plans both include unlimited calling to Mexico and Canada, as well as data, talking and texting when in either country. Now that Verizon has introduced Safety Mode as a basic feature and therefore removed overage charges, the company can now properly compete with T-Mobile and Sprint’s recent pricing structure changes. Although most customers will likely want to avoid having to rely on these speeds, having them to rely on without having to pay for them, in the event that the 4G speeds have already run out, will be a welcomed addition for many.