Just like AT&T did over a year ago and T-Mobile did last May, Verizon will be capping its smartphone users this Thursday. For about a year now, Verizon customers laughed at AT&T customers when the capping of data plans went into effect on Big Blue while pointing out yet another reason why Verizon’s network was superior to AT&T’s, citing that AT&T couldn’t handle the excessive data use by today’s smartphones. And then Verizon got the iPhone. Well it seems that the tables have turned!

Verizon plans to implement these new plans on new customers and those existing customers who are upgrading to new smartphones. There’s no word whether Verizon will allow current unlimited data plan holders to keep their plans, but if it’s like AT&T then the we can be sure they will.

New Verizon Data Plans

Just like AT&T once had, Verizon currently has an unlimited data plan for $30 per month. Starting Thursday, the new Verizon data plans will be as follows:

• $10 – 75MB per month
• $30 – 2GB per month
• $50 – 5GB per month
• $80 – 10GB per month

Going over these limits on all plans will cost $10 per gigabyte. Given the fact that AT&T once estimated that 90% of its customers can operate within their data plan limits, one can assume that the same will hold true for Verizon users as well, but then again, that estimate was done over a year ago and cell phone usage has increased dramatically in that time. Today, users are finding more and more to do with thousands of apps to choose from and more of them using data than ever before.

Of course, as these facts are becoming reality, I’d guess that more wi-fi hotspots are opening up which will further reduce the need for 3G and 4G data services.

My two cents

I’ve been grandfathered into AT&T’s unlimited data plan since 2007 and I love the fact that it’s unlimited, but I fear that when AT&T goes 4G/LTE, the data plan will remain on 3G service therefore if I upgrade to a new phone, I’ll be caught in the limited group. The only real solution to this is to sign up for a new Verizon plan today or tomorrow and leave AT&T because Verizon’s current unlimited data plan supports 4G/LTE.

My advice is if you’re thinking about going with Verizon, do it now because after tomorrow, you will be forced to use one of the plans above!