Ahead of the iPhone 5 release date, Verizon has officially ended its unlimited data plan offerings for new customers. But ask nicely and the carrier will give it to you anyway, retroactively, if you’re buying an iPhone 4 and switching away from rival AT&T in the process. This revelation casts a new light on Verizon’s strategy regarding unlimited data, and keeps the dream alive for iPhone 5 buyers to be able to get their hands on a limitless Verizon monthly data plan if they’re not an existing customer.

By the time the Verizon iPhone 4 debuted earlier this year, AT&T had already ended unlimited data plans for new customers (buying any smartphone, not just the iPhone) and the only AT&T customers who could get unlimited data were the ones who were grandfathered in because they’d had the plan going back years. Verizon offered an unlimited data option to anyone who switched to the carrier and bought the iPhone 4, but also made it clear that door would close for new customers who came on board after June. The assumption at the time was that Verizon didn’t want iPhone 5 buyers getting their hands on unlimited data (either because they expected it would be 4G LTE and capable of gobbling too much data or because it feared too many early iPhone 5 adopters would jump on board, overloading Verizon’s network either way), and was wrapping up the unlimited offerings just before the iPhone 5 release date. But Verizon’s top brass has since publicly admitted that it had been expecting the iPhone 5 to arrive in June and is as surprised as you are that it hasn’t yet arrived. This changes everything with regards to mobile data plans…

As it turns out, Verizon’s strategy all along appears to have been to allow early iPhone 5 adopters (at least those switching from AT&T) in June to have an unlimited data option, with the plan calling for that option to end in July. That would have motivate those iPhone users tired of AT&T’s various issues to go ahead and line up and buy a Verizon iPhone 5 instead of an AT&T iPhone 5 on launch day, giving the carrier a major coup and a boatload of launch-day switchers. The plan was for the unlimited option to then end shortly after the release date of the iPhone 5, creating an “early bird gets the worm” effect which would allow Verizon to use it as a marketing tool while also limiting the number of iPhone 5 buyers who could get their hands on unlimited data, thereby protecting its network capacity. That plan went awry when Apple, for reasons still unknown to the public, opted to hold back the iPhone 5 from a summer launch to what is now looking like a fall one. And now we’re told by multiple Beatweek readers (“bppump911″ first among them) that they’ve managed to talk Verizon’s customer service into giving them unlimited data plans this past week as they bought an iPhone 4 and left AT&T behind. And if that door isn’t fully closed yet, there’s nothing to say that it won’t still be open a crack by the time iPhone 5 arrives…

It’s a risky proposition for those who consider unlimited data a necessity. With new iPhones being ever more feature-laden, more apps involving network usage in one form or another, and the promise of future faster network speeds leading to the temptation to take advantage of the ability to do more surfing within the same amount of time, many users are expecting their own mobile data usage to continue to grow – and this is even as wifi is really no more easy to find when you’re on-the-go than it was five years ago. Factor in AT&T’s recent announcement that it plans to throttle down the data speeds of heavy data users, even if they’re paying for an “unlimited” plan, and suddenly things look sour. The more skeptical users are viewing the rise of limited data plans as little more than a “gotcha game” in which the carriers can charge exorbitant overage fees per megabyte, even as the effectiveness of minute overages and texting overages is fading. This means that anyone who expects to use their iPhone for serious mobile data purposes views unlimited data plans as a financial priority. And Verizon could easily cease giving unlimited plans to carrier switchers before the iPhone 5 arrives. That leaves you with two options…

The first option for those iPhone users who want to move from AT&T to Verizon and take their unlimited data with them is to play it safe by switching to a Verizon iPhone 4 right now and talking Verizon into giving you unlimited data in the process. Be aware that doing so will all but certainly shut you out of ever owning an iPhone 5, as you won’t be upgrade-eligible when it debuts later this year and could be facing the prospect of paying as much as seven hundred dollars to buy one. In other words, switch to a Verizon iPhone 4 now, and your next iPhone will be an iPhone 6…

The other option is to wait for the iPhone 5 release date, go to a corporate-owned Verizon Store (don’t even try to pull this off at an Apple Store) or call Verizon’s customer service and tell them you want to switch from AT&T but you’ll only do so if you can have unlimited data on your Verizon iPhone 5. At that point you’ll find out whether Verizon has ended its unofficial retroactive unlimited data plans for new customers or not. If you’re out of luck, then your two options are to switch to a Verizon iPhone 5 with a limited data plan, or to suck it up and remain with AT&T on either your existing iPhone 4 or a new iPhone 5. Part of that depends on just how badly you want off of AT&T, and your faith in the Verizon iPhone experience being that much better than what you’ve got now. Because U.S. carriers make up their own rules and have no consumer-centric laws to follow, either or both carriers could opt to end their unlimited data plans altogether at any time. At the end of the day, when it comes to choosing your iPhone 5 carrier once its release date finally arrives, you’ll need to decide which of the major carriers you distrust the least. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

Source - [ beatweek.com ]