Verizon pays up for disconnecting heavy users of unlimited data plans
By Darren Murph 
posted Oct 24th 2007 7:36AM
posted Oct 24th 2007 7:36AM
Regrettably, Verizon Wireless isn't the only carrier out there that once (or still does) recognized a mighty skewed definition of "unlimited" when it came to data plans, but for those still jaded from being cut off for "excessive use" earlier this year, justice has finally been served. The company has recently agreed to "reimburse the terminated subscribers for the cost of the laptop cards or laptop-connected cellphones" they purchased in order to surf the mobile broadband highway, and moreover, it'll be shelling out $150,000 in "penalties and costs" to New York state. Of course, the firm now makes clear that BroadbandAccess customers can be snubbed if they continuously stream audio / video content, enable P2P sharing or exceed 5GB of data usage per month, but it sounds like reimbursement is on the way for those disconnected when terms were more ambiguous.
If they didn't sign up for Verizon in the first place they wouldn't have a problem :P but I am glad VW is in trouble. I am tired of their arrogant "we are the best" (because an average buyer doesn't know better).
OMG when I was working for Verizon FIOS, this one guy got his residential phone service cut off for a billing issues. It turned out he was using 6 to 8 thousand minutes a month and the service terms said it was unlimited and refused to pay anymore than the regular bill per month. He even asked for a million minute plan. I was rolling on the floor with that one
Even though there's only 44,640 minutes in a 31 day month? That would mean 23 users on their phone for every minute of the month to cover the limit. That must be some really big, sleep deprived family.
What are the choices? There are a lot of things I'd like done differently but there aren't many choices.
What gets me is how they can still call it unlimited even though they put a 5GB cap on it.
I've always interpreted Verizon's BroadbandAccess TOS to also mean that you can't use it to download videos from the iTunes store. TV shows run around 1/2 GB per hour episode; so if you downloaded, say, 10 episodes of the remastered Star Trek TOS you'd blow through your 5GB cap right there.
But the plan says unlimited data. I do not understand how unlimited means limited. Oh wait....its verizon.