Verizon
Wireless promised shared data plans this summer and now it’s delivered with today’s
announcement of its new “Share Everything Plans.” 

The
new plans include unlimited voice minutes, unlimited text, video and picture
messaging and a single data allowance for up to 10 devices. In addition,
Verizon will throw in Mobile Hotspot service on all devices in Share Everything
Plans at no additional charge.  

The
new plans feature a per-month line access fee that varies by device, as well as
a monthly allotment of data, Verizon said in a press release. 

Line
access fees start at $40 for smartphones, $30 for a basic phone, $20 for
Jetpacks, USBs, Notebooks and Netbooks and $10 for cellular tablets. Data
remains in line with existing pricing structures, starting at $50 for 1GB and
progressing up to $100 for 10 GB of shared data.  

The
new plans could be a mixed bag depending on the customer. For instance, those
customers currently on Family Plans with a $9.99 per month feature phone line
will now be paying $30 per month for that same phone on the Share Everything
plans. 

“Some
customers will go up, some customers will go down and some will stay the
same,” Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Brenda Raney said in an interview. 

Customers
still on unlimited plans will have to give them up if they make the switch to
the new plans. All customers who upgrade to a new device in the future will
also be bumped to the shared plans. 

The
Share Everything Plans debut on June 28 and will be available to new and
existing customers who want to move to the new plans.   

Verizon
Wireless has been telegraphing the move to shared data plans in remarks by
executives at investor conferences and earnings calls. Tami Erwin, vice
president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless, said in a statement
that Verizon did quite a bit of research before crafting the new plans, which
are an industry first among the major carriers. 

“Share
Everything Plans are the outcome of that research,” Erwin said. “They
cover every device Verizon Wireless offers, from basic phones to smartphones,
from tablets to Jetpacks and more.  Share
Everything Plans represent a tremendous shift in how customers think about
wireless service.”   

A
recent investor conference, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said the move
to shared data plans will effectively end the use of the ARPU metric for judging
growth, as carriers will increasingly be looking at accounts that contain
multiple devices and users. 

Shammo
pitched the new plans as a “win-win” for customers, as well as
Verizon, saying that Verizon would not see a “huge revenue dilution,”
nor would there be a short-term slowdown in revenue due to migration to the new
plans. 

Meanwhile,
AT&T has been vocal about its enthusiasm for new data pricing models. In
remarks at a recent investor conference, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega
confirmed that AT&T will also be moving to shared data plans in the near future.

Craig
Moffet, an analyst with Bernstein Research, called the move by Verizon to
shared data “the most profound change to pricing the telecom industry has seen
in twenty years.” 

“We
believe that Verizon’s Share Everything plans will eventually become
ubiquitous, as new customers will be required to take these plans, and existing
customers make the transition over to the 4G LTE network,” Moffet wrote in
comments today.