Issues with VZ Wireless

[Philip Flory]

I have been a VZ customer for 3 or 4 years now.. several recent changes to the service are making me consider my stance though.

I recently, on vacation, dropped my current cell phone (T730) in the water and it appears the cell phone is shot. In the past 2 years (2-yr contract is up in March) ... I have used my T730 on the single rate plan along with an Ositech card for a pretty good slow data/phone combo. Due to the death of the phone I was considering buying a new phone (Moto E815) which I have heard good things about.. UNTIL.. I find out that VZ has disabled the E815's (and several other new models I guess) ability to dial up to the internet via a laptop. Reason being I guess they don't want you using your minutes for data.. and instead are trying to literally force on you the new VCast product, which is meaningless and expensive for anything chasing related. So I thought.. i'll just buy another T730 off Ebay and have VZ active and continue my prior use... THEN I found this..

Mobile Office Kits, PC Cards, PDAs or other wireless modem devices may not be used for Internet access without a subscription to select VZAccess plans.

Verizon Wireless Calling Plans, Rate and Coverage Areas, rates, agreement provisions, business practices, procedures and policies are subject to change as specified in the Customer Agreement.

Last Update 10/02/05


This is under the "America's Choice" plan they seem to push.. my old single rate plan is nowhere to be found. Yet a look at the coverage map of "America's Choice" indicates a LARGE dropoff in coverage (analog) in areas in C/W Oklahoma compared to my former Single Rate plan. It seems VZ is trying to sell more minutes for less money with the AC's plan while cutting the coverage area. Nice.

Im at a crossroads at what to do... I wonder if VZ has a way of disabling the "dial-up" capabilities on the older phones with some type of firmware update? Also, I wonder if you use an older version phone for internet if they will actually enforce the new rule.

My contract is up in March and my plan is to buy a cheap replacement phone for the winter and weigh my options on VZ and other providers. It seems while other providers are pushing the use of phones for internet via laptop... VZ is significantly going away from it and instead pushing internet only use on the phone which is IMO dumb.

Other options I am considering are Alltell (not sure how this will work for dial-up .. but coverage map looks good.. I hear very little about them though) and Cingular... which I have heard poor things about and coverage area in W KS and NE looks poor..

Anyone with more info on this or reccomendations is greatly appreciated.

 

[Tyler Allison]

they want you to buy the PCMCIA card for your laptop and buy a dataplan is what it is.

 

[Jay Cazel]

Look on E-bay for the phone you have, it might cost 50 or 60 bucks but then you still can use your Ositech card for now and not have to worry about a new rate plan or contract. Does your old contract say anything about data in it? I asked my lawyer about this and I was told that when you the consumer signs a contract it is good for the term of the contract, once the contract is up (after 2 years ) then the company can change the terms (TOS) like what you can and can't do like interent etc..such as what you are talking about. All they ant you to do is sign up again for 2 more years with new equiment. Just my 2 cents worth...

 

[Philip Flory]

they want you to buy the PCMCIA card for your laptop and buy a dataplan is what it is.

OK.. problem is.. I have searched and searched the VZ site for any information on this topic and have found very little. It seems the only "data plan" VZ offers is the new Vcast and "National Access" which is only available in a major metro area. It seems support for traditional dial up is being completely taken out. I could choose to call VZ about this issue but very rarely do you find anyone that would even have a clue what I am talking about. You would think that if VZ was going to not allow you to dial up then they would offer some sort of plan, which to my knowledge they don't.

Look on E-bay for the phone you have, it might cost 50 or 60 bucks but then you still can use your Ositech card for now and not have to worry about a new rate plan or contract. Does your old contract say anything about data in it? I asked my lawyer about this and I was told that when you the consumer signs a contract it is good for the term of the contract, once the contract is up (after 2 years ) then the company can change the terms (TOS) like what you can and can't do like interent etc..such as what you are talking about. All they ant you to do is sign up again for 2 more years with new equiment. Just my 2 cents worth...

I have located the phone on Ebay for around 60 bucks. I am not very sure how all this "contract" and stuff works. If I was to buy the phone off of Ebay now.. would VZ even activate it for me on my old plan or would they require I sign a new plan or buy a phone from them? Do you even HAVE to have a contract with VZ to use the service.. or is it merely a con job to get you to buy new equipment (as a somewhat reduced price) every 1 or 2 years?

Also, If I was to buy the T730 and decide against the new contract in March and decide to keep the T730.. is their a way they could disable the dial-up or enforce restrictions against my using of Ositech with it? I am sure despite not signing a contract I would still be under some sort of TOS.

In a perfect world.. I would buy a new T730 off Ebay... neglect to sign a new contract in March and continue to use the T730 thru next chase season with Ositech... on the single rate plan I currently have. Not sure if this is going to be possible though.

 

[rdale]

""National Access" which is only available in a major metro area"

National access is widely available - I think you are referring to EVDO (their high-speed national access, which is primarily metro.) NA allows access to EVDO and "traditional" slower speeds (~ 70K)

 

[Jay Cazel]

they want you to buy the PCMCIA card for your laptop and buy a dataplan is what it is.

OK.. problem is.. I have searched and searched the VZ site for any information on this topic and have found very little. It seems the only "data plan" VZ offers is the new Vcast and "National Access" which is only available in a major metro area. It seems support for traditional dial up is being completely taken out. I could choose to call VZ about this issue but very rarely do you find anyone that would even have a clue what I am talking about. You would think that if VZ was going to not allow you to dial up then they would offer some sort of plan, which to my knowledge they don't.

Look on E-bay for the phone you have, it might cost 50 or 60 bucks but then you still can use your Ositech card for now and not have to worry about a new rate plan or contract. Does your old contract say anything about data in it? I asked my lawyer about this and I was told that when you the consumer signs a contract it is good for the term of the contract, once the contract is up (after 2 years ) then the company can change the terms (TOS) like what you can and can't do like interent etc..such as what you are talking about. All they ant you to do is sign up again for 2 more years with new equiment. Just my 2 cents worth...

I have located the phone on Ebay for around 60 bucks. I am not very sure how all this "contract" and stuff works. If I was to buy the phone off of Ebay now.. would VZ even activate it for me on my old plan or would they require I sign a new plan or buy a phone from them? Do you even HAVE to have a contract with VZ to use the service.. or is it merely a con job to get you to buy new equipment (as a somewhat reduced price) every 1 or 2 years?

Also, If I was to buy the T730 and decide against the new contract in March and decide to keep the T730.. is their a way they could disable the dial-up or enforce restrictions against my using of Ositech with it? I am sure despite not signing a contract I would still be under some sort of TOS.

In a perfect world.. I would buy a new T730 off Ebay... neglect to sign a new contract in March and continue to use the T730 thru next chase season with Ositech... on the single rate plan I currently have. Not sure if this is going to be possible though.

If you get a phone off E-bay all you need to do is call VZ and ask to do a ESN swap, since you are not starting new service with VZ it should not be a problem to get the new phone turned on. Just tell them you are changing phones because yours broke (no lie). I have done this with Sprint many times in the past without a new contract (even after my contract was up) they don't like to do it because they want a new 2 year contract and give you a new phone but VZ or Sprint can not tell you what phone you can or can't use, unless it is a phone off a different company cell service (ATT) that won't work on there system. Also you do not have to sign a new contract at the end of March 2006 (unless you want a new phone and data plan), you can still use your plan and phone you have now, BUT the TOS might change (kinda like Sprint's TOS about data cables and laptops and internet access). Cell phone compines like 2 year contracts to lock you in on what THEY want you to have and use. One thing I have found out with the new 3G type of phones, they will not let you dail out and get interet access like with the old 2G phones would. Cell phone compines can do what they want with there service, what happens today might not benifit them tomorrow that is why they change all the time and force people to buy new phones, data cards, etc....

 

[Edward Ballou]

My sprint Treo 650 has DUN(dial-up networking) support. I connect through Bluetooth and am able to use Sprint's Vision network to surf the internet. As long as you're not doing it all the time, you're fine. Away with stupid cables, hello Bluetooth!

 

[Philip Flory]

Ok... the buying a T730 off of Ebay and calling for the ESN swap and using that until March sounds good.

If I was to say.. keep the T730 after March and switch to another data plan (e.x. America's Choice) would that mean I would HAVE to sign a contract... does signing up for another plan mean you have to sign a contract? Also, I understand after my March contract is up I will be subject to a new TOS regardless of if I sign a new contract... how would I access that... go to Verizon and ask for a copy? From what I am reading.. it sounds as if Verizon's current "TOS" does not allow DUN with any of the new phones... and I wonder if this may soon change for the older phones. If so, and I can't find another worthwhile provider.. I guess maybe the days of just using your cell phone for talking may come back.. at least XM and Wifi exist now.

If I decided to drop Verizon... does anyone know the stance of other companies .. Alltell... Cingular.. Sprint..... on DUN?

 

[Jay Cazel]

Ok... the buying a T730 off of Ebay and calling for the ESN swap and using that until March sounds good.

If I was to say.. keep the T730 after March and switch to another data plan (e.x. America's Choice) would that mean I would HAVE to sign a contract... does signing up for another plan mean you have to sign a contract? Also, I understand after my March contract is up I will be subject to a new TOS regardless of if I sign a new contract... how would I access that... go to Verizon and ask for a copy? From what I am reading.. it sounds as if Verizon's current "TOS" does not allow DUN with any of the new phones... and I wonder if this may soon change for the older phones. If so, and I can't find another worthwhile provider.. I guess maybe the days of just using your cell phone for talking may come back.. at least XM and Wifi exist now.

If I decided to drop Verizon... does anyone know the stance of other companies .. Alltell... Cingular.. Sprint..... on DUN?

If you want to get a new plan, you would need to sign up again for 1 or 2 years. Now for the terms of service (TOS) (I don't want to sound like a lawyer but it is going to sound that way, I was going to go to law school but that is a different story) VZ MUST notify you that the TOS is changing and you can say okay or say no and go with what the new TOS says OR go get a different cell provider. Now how they notify you can be by e-mail, snail mail, or in the NEW contract that you sign will spell it out for you. You should beable to go to VZ website and find the TOS there. What I have now is Sprint PCS, ( I know the TOS says you are not suppose to use data cables and a laptop to access the internet via the Vison network on Sprint, but the word is as long as you don't abuse it they look the other way). ad it works well, where there is service. Now Mike Umscheid (a fellow ST member) just got a new Altell plan with data package that looks to work all over Kansas, http://www.alltel.com/business/enhanced/mo...mobilelink.html so you might look at that.