Verizon Caves to Demand for Unlimited Data Plans, Makes Customers Happy

Verizon has long been king in the wireless provider market, but recently it has had to step up its game in the data department. A limited data plan — with supposedly superior service — was no longer cutting it for customers. Many of whom left to take up the sweet, sweet offers of competitors like Sprint and T-Mobile. This past fiscal year, Verizon had a net loss of customers in the first quarter. Something that has never happened to them before.

As someone who has Verizon, and receives a text warning about data every time I even think about watching a YouTube video, I can understand why people would jump ship.

That first loss of customers, totaling 289,000 cell phone subscribers and about 307,000 overall, resulted in a 5% revenue drop to $20.9 billion. Man, how are those Verizon CEOs going to pay their weed bills now?

This past February, Verizon caved into the unlimited data pressure and began offering an unlimited plan of its own. The plan, while more expensive than Sprint and T-Mobile's, is on par with AT&T.

This seems to be a step in the right direction, with a net gain of 110,000 customers, and a lower number of "churn," or customers leaving for new networks. But is it too late to stop the bleeding while the company sustains a steady assault by T-Mobile and Sprint through their aggressive advertising?

Regardless of Verizon's fate, the competition between service providers has been all good news for consumers, as "prices for wireless telephone services fell 11.4% in March from a year earlier, and declined 7% from February" according to The Wall Street Journal.

So excuse us for not feeling too bad about the state Verizon finds itself in. That probably serves them right for ditching unlimited data in the first place!