Verizon Starts Charging Up the Wazoo for Data

When my old cell phone went for a swim in the washing machine in May, I was forced to quickly decide what I wanted to do to replace it. I opted to stay with Sprint, even though I've had trouble in certain places (my couch, my Mom's house. . .) with reception. And so far, I'm still totally digging my Samsung Epic 4G Android phone.  I wasn't too thrilled with the fact that my "everything data plan" isn't enough with 4G. . .you need the extra everything or whatever. Because everything isn't quite everything. Still, it turns out, this is a good deal after all. Sprint is the last holdout on pricing data this way. Verizon is the latest to start charging for things like the airlines do.

Question though, how does a person know when they're passing x number of Gigabytes used? Doesn't this seem regressive, like back to the days of counting minutes? Didn't this pain-in-the-ass metering lead up to the everything plans?

Attention cell phone providers: You created a market, and a need for something we didn't used to need. You coerced us into parting with $30, $50, $60, $75. . .hell, now that we're up here, why not $100? $120 per month? This is in addition to our internet/cable/home phone "bundles" that are creeping up to $200 per month. It's easy now to get yourself up to $300 plus per month, just for media services, often all to the same company. And that isn't even maxing everything out. You've got enough! Leave us alone!!!

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Verizon prepares fees for mobile users who download too much information

Verizon Wireless on Tuesday became the latest U.S. mobile data carrier to announce that it would implement usage-based pricing for Internet access, claiming the new fees would mean light users no longer "subsidize" those who rely on the company's current unlimited data plans. . .

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