The company on Thursday released a statement to clarify what will actually happen. Customers with unlimited plans will get to keep their unlimited plans. But when shared data plans become available, the unlimited option will no longer be available to customers when they buy a new device at a subsidized price, usually with a two-year service contract.
In other words, those customers are no longer grandfathered in if they want a discounted new phone.
Verizon’s e-mailed statement, in full:
— Customers will not be automatically moved to new shared data plans. If a 3G or 4G smartphone customer is on an unlimited plan now and they do not want to change their plan, they will not have to do so.
— When we introduce our new shared data plans, Unlimited Data will no longer be available to customers when purchasing handsets at discounted pricing.
— Customers who purchase phones at full retail price and are on an unlimited smartphone data plan will be able to keep that plan.
— The same pricing and policies will be applied to all 3G and 4GLTE smartphones.
In short, the death of grandfathered unlimited data plans will come when all the people with unlimited data give up their devices for new ones. And that could take years.