Verizon old unlimited plan change

[Mr&Mrs Duet]

Is there an advantage to keeping the old grand fathered unlimited data plan vs getting the new 75gb plan?

Have any of you upgrade and regretted it?

The rep tells me they throttle both of them anyway. We haven't started long term travel yet (it's just around the corner), so we haven't gotten to the limit yet.

2nd question; I have heard of people selling their old unlimited data plans, anybody know how this is accomplished?

 

Thanks for the help

Keith

[mkc]

The original (grandfathered) UDPs are not subject to throttling, nor limits on hotspot tethering (with the paid-for hotspot feature).

The new limited "unlimited" plans, including the 75 GB, are subject to network management plus after 20 GB of tethering your speeds drop to 600 kbps until your billing cycle resets.

Join rvmobileinternet.com to stay up to date on data for travel.  It's well worth the premium membership, too.

[Mr&Mrs Duet]

Quote

The original (grandfathered) UDPs are not subject to throttling, nor limits on hotspot tethering (with the paid-for hotspot feature).

So if it's USB tethered or running through an external wifi modem it's not detectable?

Quote

The new limited "unlimited" plans, including the 75 GB, are subject to network management plus after 20 GB of tethering your speeds drop to 600 kbps until your billing cycle resets.

The rep was trying to tell me they throttle the old plans now as well, I hadn't experienced that, but our high traffic rarely exceeds 8gb as we are weekenders, and don't stream television through it.  If you stream video through a usb to hdmi or some other physical converter, is it detectable?

MKC, Thanks for the info link, I'll check them out.

 

[justRich]

We have the old unlimited Verizon plan and have used PdaNet for years.  
But no longer.  If you're a Costco member, take a look at the Moto G8 phone.  I have an older Moto G4 phone and it has built-in wifi hotspot (free - nada - no charge). 
It's simple as pie.  If you have the Verizon unlimited data plan you can simply activate the Moto G hotspot and presto! - you've got your wifi hotspot.
(Of course you have to set up your wifi password first.)

I've been using this system for about two years with my older Moto G4.
DW purchased the newer Moto G8 phone and it works the same (the phone itself has newer and some better features though).  There maybe other phone  manufacturers that provide the same service provision, so it's worth a look.  PdaNet is dead.

Correction:  PdaNet is not defunct.  It's only dead in the sense that there is no need for it on newer more capable phones.

 

Edited December 28, 2018 by Rich&Sylvia
Misleading statement correction

[LindaH]

17 minutes ago, Rich&Sylvia said:

There maybe other phone  manufacturers that provide the same service provision, so it's worth a look.  PdaNet is dead.

I think most, if not all, of Verizon's smartphones have this feature.  I know all of mine...mostly Samsung...have had this feature, as does my Verizon Asus tablet.  In fact, it's the only way I get online.

[docj]

5 minutes ago, LindaH said:

I think most, if not all, of Verizon's smartphones have this feature.  I know all of mine...mostly Samsung...have had this feature, as does my Verizon Asus tablet.

The Terms of Service (TOS) of the grandfathered Verizon plans do not permit tethering or hotspot use without paying an extra fee for it.  I know because I did have one for several years and had decided that paying Verizon ~$30/mo for hotspot usage was worth to avoid risking cancellation.  But my plan got cancelled anyway!  But I doubt the TOS has changed.

[Big5er]

1 hour ago, Rich&Sylvia said:

PdaNet is dead

Not true at all. Pdanet is alive and well. I used Pdanet and a tablet on Verizon up until I signed up for Verizon's new unlimited hotspot plan 2 months ago.

[pjstough]

9 minutes ago, Big5er said:

Not true at all. Pdanet is alive and well. I used Pdanet and a tablet on Verizon up until I signed up for Verizon's new unlimited hotspot plan 2 months ago.

Ditto.  I am still using PDA net.  Or is it that PDA net wont work on some newer phones?

[mkc]

48 minutes ago, pjstough said:

Ditto.  I am still using PDA net.  Or is it that PDA net wont work on some newer phones?

FoxFi's (PDAnet) hotspot mode does not work on some of the newer phones.

[GlennWest]

Works on wife's s7, on my Moto droid

[Big5er]

Works on my S7 and my Galaxy Tablet. Neither are "brand new" models but they aren't "old" either.

[mkc]

1 hour ago, GlennWest said:

Works on wife's s7

 

5 minutes ago, Big5er said:

Works on my S7 and my Galaxy Tablet. 

 

Guys - are you using an old gUDP plan with your G7's?  

We replaced one of our phones with a G7 and it will not wifi hotspot with the current OS (we do not have the paid-for hotspot feature).

Edited December 28, 2018 by mkc

[Ronbo]

8 hours ago, docj said:

The Terms of Service (TOS) of the grandfathered Verizon plans do not permit tethering or hotspot use without paying an extra fee for it.  I know because I did have one for several years and had decided that paying Verizon ~$30/mo for hotspot usage was worth to avoid risking cancellation.  But my plan got cancelled anyway!  But I doubt the TOS has changed.

Why did your plan get canceled?

[docj]

1 hour ago, Ronbo said:

Why did your plan get canceled?

We got hit in one of Verizon's early sweeps in which they closed accounts that were judged to have "excessive usage".  What's ironic is that in those days ~60-80GB/mo was considered excessive.  Last month I used >125GB on my unlimited prepaid Verizon Jetpack account.

Edited December 29, 2018 by docj

[Mr&Mrs Duet]

PDA Net works on the Galaxy Note8 and my understanding is it does not show up as tethered data.  Using the new phones with that feature built in do track it. June fabrics recently released an update that works. It has a slightly more convoluted log in.

Quote

look at the Moto G8 phone.

We'll take a look.

The one good thing about the GUDPs were the court ruled many years ago that Verizon couldn't restrict how data was used on those. (as long as it was not unlawful use) one of the reasons Verizon is trying to eliminate them and force users to the new, more regulated plans.

Does anyone stream the majority of their TV watching?  What amount of data does that use per hour?

 

 

[lappir]

Not sure if anyone has looked at this in a while. 

I have been a user of FoxFi for years and it's been trouble free. Unfortunately my S7 took a dive off the motorcycle  a few weeks ago and instead of fixing I decided to upgrade to a Note 9. Problem I have now is I cannot turn off the USB Debugging on the Note. (or at least I cannot find a way to do it.). I had my old S5 and reactivated it for use while I decided what to do about the phone. It worked with the FoxFi and other than being really slow to connect to the BT helmet headset(compared to the instant connection with the Note9). It was working OK. Do I "add a line" to my Verizon and just use the S5 for my computer, or is there a work around? I'm currently at a place with pretty good WiFi, but that's not often the case. 

 

Rod 

[justRich]

Do a Google search: galaxy note 9 hotspot
I believe that FoxFi is a thing of the past and is not needed.  
And I suspect that most newer phones have the hotspot feature built in.
Hope that helps.

[lappir]

6 hours ago, Rich&Sylvia said:

Do a Google search: galaxy note 9 hotspot
I believe that FoxFi is a thing of the past and is not needed.  
And I suspect that most newer phones have the hotspot feature built in.
Hope that helps.

It says I have to activate and pay extra for access to the "hotspot". I already pay for the data and have never had an issue with my Samsung 3, 5 or 7. Didn't expect to have one with the Note 9. Like the phone so far, but not having to use the Park WiFi. 

Rod

[justRich]

Is it too late to return the Note?
Both our Moto G4 and G8 phones allow us to turn on the hotspot at no charge.

And I twice asked the sales person at the Costco kiosk about upgrading my old phone and still be able to use the hotspot with Verizon's old grandfathered unlimited data plan.  Both times the answer was in the affirmative.
(Caveat: there was a catch though.  As I understand it, the purchase of a new phone through Costco required signing up for a "plan" which could be canceled within two months and I could still used my old Verizon plan without change . . .not to clear about that and will ask again at another store.)

[docj]

As I recall you were supposed to pay to use the hotspot with the old, grandfathered Verizon plan.  I had one and I remember that issue.  Lots of people did use FoxFi to get around the issue, but I was careful to pay for it each month thinking it might keep me from getting cancelled. I got cancelled, anyway, for using an egregious amount of data--80GB which seemed like a lot in those days! 😁

[LindaH]

18 hours ago, lappir said:

It says I have to activate and pay extra for access to the "hotspot". I already pay for the data and have never had an issue with my Samsung 3, 5 or 7. Didn't expect to have one with the Note 9. Like the phone so far, but not having to use the Park WiFi. 

We are Verizon customers and have *never* paid extra to use our phone as a hotspot.  Although we haven't used a Note 9, we have mostly used Samsung phones.  

[Mr&Mrs Duet]

Quote

I decided to upgrade to a Note 9. Problem I have now is I cannot turn off the USB Debugging on the Note. (or at least I cannot find a way to do it.).

I too have this problem with my Note9. My wifes Note 8 still allows it to be used with PdaNet. The 9 wants a fee. Haven't found a work around yet.

[Greg112]

When I changed from a Samsung to an LG I found I could no longer use the wifi hotspot with pdanet. I struggled with the Wifi direct for awhile but it was real clunky (for me). I eventually changed to one of the newer Verizon plans that includes hotspot.

I'm not finding a Pdanet upgrade in the Play store? I've got version 5.22.1

 

[JimK]

Our experience matches what seems to be a consensus of the previous comments.  On the old plans tethering was not allowed unless paid for separately at a hefty charge.  Many of us went to PDA net to circumvent the restrictions.  With or without PDA net, Verizon track data usage and throttled back service somewhere around 20 gigs.  Now the smart phones come with tethering built in so PDA net is no longer useful and may not work at all.  Verizon continues to throttle service around 20 gigs.  I have heard the number is actually 22 gigs but I have not seen confirmation of that.  

20 gig covers quite a few hours of internet surfing, but with only a few evenings of use for streaming and Zoom/Skype applications.  I also learned the hard way not to leave Maps or other navigation apps turned on for hours while driving.

[Dutch_12078]

I'll just note here that our Visible/Verizon unlimited talk, text, and data plan hit ~224 GB last month, still at the "Party Pay" price of $25/month.