Back in June of 2010 (right before the launch of the iPhone 4, no less) AT&T dropped their $30 Unlimited Data plan. Current and would-be iPhone owners were rightly bummed — but given the whole one-carrier situation the iPhone was in back then, there wasn’t much anyone could do. Besides complain, of course. Which we did, of course.
Proving that a little competition is always a good thing, here’s what Verizon COO Lowell McAdams said to the Wall Street Journal today:
“I’m not going to shoot myself in the foot,” he said. Not offering an unlimited plan would put up a barrier for customers who might otherwise switch from AT&T, he said
These customers McAdams is referring to, of course, are the presumably massive group who’ve managed to keep AT&T’s now extinct $30 data plan by simply not changing a thing. Folks who had the $30 plan before could keep it as long as they didn’t opt-in to their new (terrible ripoff) 200 MB/$15 plan, or try to tack on the tethering option.
The plan, according to details McAdams shared with the WSJ, will cost the same $30 AT&T’s did before they changed things up.
Update: Sad trombone. That $30 Unlimited Plan? It won’t last for long. Shortly after he made this statement, Lowell McAdams went on to clarify that the unlimited plan will be a limited-time deal and that Verizon plans to make the jump to tiered data plans sometime after the iPhone launch.