Verizon Says 5G Network Will Cost Extra $10 a Month (go.com) 67
Verizon said on Tuesday that it will charge an additional $10 a month per smartphone for subscribers who want to add 5G speeds to their devices, the first major U.S. carrier to disclose pricing for the faster cellular service. From a report: Verizon says it'll flip the switch next month on a much-hyped, next-generation "5G" phone network. Service will start in parts of Chicago and Minneapolis. Verizon expects to have 5G in 30 cities this year. For now, few people will sign on. The offer is available only on unlimited plans, which currently start at $75 for one person or $160 for a family of four without 5G. On family plans, each 5G line would cost $10 extra. And network access will initially work with just one phone, Motorola's Moto Z3, with a special 5G attachment. Verizon will offer some promotions at first, including discounts on the phone and attachment and the first three months of 5G service free.
Extra per month (Score:3)
I'm pretty sure when I looked in to changing my US Provider, they wanted me to pay an extra $10/month for LTE as well. So does this fee replace the $10/month for LTE or are customers expected to pay $10/month for LTE AND $10/month for "5G?"
Re: Extra per month (Score:1)
I will keep 4G. 4G is about serving faster speeds. 5G is about making it cheaper for them to do so. If they want to charge more for that? No, thanks.
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In monopolistic (oligopolisitic) markets, the cost of providing services goes down while end user prices go up.
Can't say I didn't warn you.
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I'm pretty sure when I looked in to changing my US Provider, they wanted me to pay an extra $10/month for LTE as well. So does this fee replace the $10/month for LTE or are customers expected to pay $10/month for LTE AND $10/month for "5G?"
pretty sure it'll be on top of the $10/m for LTE.
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IIRC, the irony is that LTE is used regardless, and there isn't any 3G anymore. So, you wind up using the LTE network no matter what, as voice and data all go through the same path, as opposed to being split on 3G and earlier.
The cellular provider I use isn't bad, although paying half as much per line with Spectrum Wireless is tempting.
Re:Extra per month (Score:4, Informative)
Adding to that irony is that $10/mo is the price of an entire monthly LTE plan in many countries, including tethering, unlimited voice and text, unmetered messaging apps, etc. (albeit not unlimited data). The price of telecom service in the US and the rampant nickel-and-diming is outrageous from a consumer-centric perspective, although obviously it's outstanding from an investor perspective.
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Golan Telecom. 29nis/mo gives me unlimited everything, except data, which is capped at 6GB. Free international calling, too.
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For reference to anybody unfamiliar:
https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
8 USD.
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Golan Telecom. 29nis/mo gives me unlimited everything, except data, which is capped at 6GB. Free international calling, too.
Yeah, but how many yachts does Golan Telecom CEO have? You got to think of the boat builders, dude. Why do you hate boat builders?
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Adding to that irony is that $10/mo is the price of an entire monthly LTE plan in many countries
This is because most American consumers actually don't care about lower prices for cell service.
We have choices. T-Mobile costs less than either Verizon or AT&T. Yet it has only about 10% of the market, while Verizon and AT&T have about 30% each.
Consumers are clearly voting with their dollars for features other than low price.
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I'd switch to T-Mobile if they had rural coverage but they don't. Being able to use a phone as a phone is an interesting thing to classify as a 'feature'.
VZW prepaid works where the others don't so they get my dirty money until a competitor comes along.
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From what I've been able to tell, 5G offers little benefit to the customer over 4G. At 5G speeds, you can blow through your monthly quota in a couple minutes. The benefit is mostly for the carrier - fewer bandwidth bottlenecks when lots of people are in the same towe
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I'm pretty sure when I looked in to changing my US Provider, they wanted me to pay an extra $10/month for LTE as well. So does this fee replace the $10/month for LTE or are customers expected to pay $10/month for LTE AND $10/month for "5G?"
If you're still paying the same amount now as when LTE was introduced for the same package then the answer is yes you will pay $10 more a month because you're a sucker.
Mi-Fi unlimited (Score:2)
Get 5G Mi-Fi unlimited and cable will be in for a wild ride. Competition would be good.
Re:Mi-Fi unlimited (Score:5, Interesting)
Given that their current "unlimited" plans seem to cap out at 20GB of 4G LTE data before throttling you to 600 Kb/s for the remainder of the billing cycle, I don't think this is the disruption you were hoping for. At best, something like that plan may compete with rural WISPs or satellite, assuming the location even has 4G LTE coverage in the first place.
$10 for what? (Score:4, Funny)
Is that for fake 5G or real 5G?
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The only real 5G is going to be when you're standing within 20m of a transmitter, completely alone, with no so much as a particularly anemic butterfly wing interrupting your line of sight, so I'm guessing the fake stuff.
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> Making exercising a thing you do 3 times a week.
The Windows support guy said I should Power Cycle at least twice a day.
But I said, I don't even own a bike.
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The extra wide big series of tubes that have to be put together to make 5G work.
Going to need a longer tube.
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$10 for what? ..
Is that for fake 5G or real 5G?
Fake 5G. REAL 5G will cost, ahem, $5G.
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5G is about better channel management and dealing with congestion. It makes things better for the provider, enables support for more customers and might, under good conditions, give you better speeds in busy areas.
ATT doesn't have to. (Score:4, Funny)
Since ATT found a way to upgrade their system to 5G without spending money, they won't have to jack rates up. Hope all you guys who were baggin' on ATT a few weeks ago about it will shut up now!
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They don't have to jack up rates, but of course they will. I mean, this is AT&T we're talking about, after all.
and to make 15GB the new cap for home use (Score:3)
yes they want to push this as home internet $500 router needed.
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Typical (Score:4, Informative)
5G benefits primarily the carrier, not the subscriber. The chance that you'll see any faster speeds than 4G/LTE is very slim. The carrier however gets to reap benefits from lower traffic congestion meaning that they'll be able to cram more connections on the same hardware. And make the customers pay for it.
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That's taking into account one theory and completely ignoring another. 5G classically has lower range meaning they need to provide at least the same amount of hardware to get the coverage. Combined with being able to cram more connections in the same hardware you will definitely see improvements in speed on congested hotspots.
i.e.
1. your phone may actually work when there's a football game at the local stadium.
2. you will get blazingly fast speeds at off peak times.
3. even if your speeds don't improve you s
Let me fix it for you. (Score:3)
Not excited (Score:3)
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The rest of us, who live in moderately sized s
No, what they mean is... (Score:2)
I'm quite sure that the cost per subscriber to them would be negligible.
What is the cap?? and is it opt in? (Score:2)
What is the cap?? and is it opt in?
or with BYOD they can say your phone is classed as 5G pay must pay more?
Yeah, burn through your data limit faster (Score:1)
So they can charge you more for overages and extra data.
Seriously? Only 'dumb fucks' (to quote Zuckerberg), would sign up for that shit.
As it is now on 4G/4Glte, I already have to be careful that I dont load some fuckturd site with a shitpot of uncompressed images on it and burn through my 5GB data cap before I'm throttled to 2G.
Yeah, no thanks Verizon. Go fuck yourself.
Extra $10/month now.... (Score:2)
What for? (Score:2)
First off, it's already an "unlimited" plan, so this isn't to gain more data per month. So that just leaves speed. 4G is supposed to be 5 - 12 Mbps. So if you are "merely" getting the 4G you paid for, that is at least 5 Mbps. That's just about enough to stream 1080p video.... to a CELL phone. So what's the intention here? For people to hook their cell phone up to a 4k TV via HDMI and stream 4k video over 5G?
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I don't think phones are really the target market, in the long term. The carriers want to disrupt the incumbent cable companies, which often have a monopoly on high-speed data for any particular region. The carriers want to make it so your Wi-Fi router is pulling your internet from the air, instead.
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I use LTE for home internet. It works fine usually though not sometimes in the evening. The big problem is the quota, which forces us to stream at lower bandwidth rates anyways.
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Where are you getting 5-12Mbps as 4G?! I'm getting 45-70Mbps from my 4G hotspot!
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I got those speeds once from a public 4G tower - it was grand. At a popular beach resort area in NJ.
Everywhere else I've been it's 10x slower. Probably distance to tower.
Is it safe? (Score:1)
Huawei tax (Score:2)
Still same old Verizon (Score:1)