Verizon Rolls Out Unlimited Voice/Data Plans

Today Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest CDMA carrier, announced that it is rolling out a new suite of unlimited voice, data, and messaging plans. Starting with the Basic plan for US$99.99/mo, users will get unlimited domestic voice minutes, Mobile Web 2.0 access, and internet access. An additional $20 takes users to the Select plan, which also includes unlimited picture, video, and text messaging to and from numbers in the United States. An additional $20/mo, bringing the total to $139.99, gets users the Premium plan, which includes everything in the Basic and Select plans, as well as V CAST Video, VZ Navigator, and Verizon's push based Mobile Email service.

Verizon has also updated its plans for smartphones. There are two new domestic plans for smartphones and BlackBerries, and two new 'Global' plans. The $129.99 domestic plan offers unlimited domestic voice, email, and internet access. $149.44 adds unlimited picture and text messaging. The global plans start at $149.99 for unlimited domestic voice, internet access, and global email. That seems to imply that there are no data roaming fees outside of the country with these plans, though it is unclear if this pertains only to CDMA networks or if it works with dual-mode devices such the RIM BlackBerry 8830 World Edition. An additional $20/mo gets the unlimited messaging added to the global plan.

Verizon will also be offering new unlimited family plans, but with pricing set at $199.98/mo for the first 2 lines, and $99.99/mo for each additional line, we see no obvious reason to have a family plan instead of individual plans.

Verizon has said that users can switch over to any of the new unlimited plans without having to extend their current contracts. The company is touting this as being part of its Worry Free Guarantee.

Verizon also announced that its BroadBand Access data plans will change on March 2nd. $39.99/mo will get users 50MB of monthly data, while $59.99 will earn users the right to use up to 5GB of data. This is a change from the current 'unlimited' BroadBand Access plan that runs $59.99/mo.