Data

Feb 02 2017

Does Verizon’s Unlimited Data Plan Work for Your Company?

Yep, most of you have heard Verizon has unleashed an Unlimited Data Plan. Many of you are asking us about it, so here is BP’s take:

Why now?

Because Verizon was losing subscribers to TMobile and Sprint who added 3.3 million and almost 1 million subscribers respectively last year. This is compared to Verizon’s then CFO predictions of “revenue fairly consistent with that of 2016” (aka = no growth) for 2017 without the unlimited plan. Verizon revenue dropped 3% in the first half of 2016 and, interestingly, Verizon stock has fallen almost 2% since the Unlimited Plan announcement.

Also, according to USA Today, Verizon has increased their network making it better able to handle more capacity; Verizon has stated that the cost of delivering a GB of data has dropped 40%-50% as it has made network improvements.

Is it a Good Fit for Your Organization?

This plan does have some merits for the right users. Here’s the skinny:

Why it probably isn’t the best fit for large groups of users:

If the account has significantly more than 10 users, the plan bills an Account level charge for each group of 10. This can become cost prohibitive depending on the device types and the data usage of the group (usually more data usage, the better the fit on this plan)
These plans are non-discount eligible so no corporate discount will be honored. You pay what Joe off the street pays.
Smartphone plans will be billed $20 higher if the subscriber is in contract. So, for each Smartphone that states a $20 per Add-on Rate per subscriber, add another $20 — for a total of $40 — for each Smartphone under contract. Check out your number of devices in contract because clearly this doubles each extra subscriber monthly cost. When comparing pricing, most prices stated use the “out of contract” amount for monthly cost.
Each account will only be credited $10 if the account is paid with a bank card or check. That means using the Corporate Credit Card will cost you extra. Again, when comparing prices, this credit is often automatically included in the rates.
Tablets are double the cost of what Corporate business rates are being billed today. So, if there are a lot of tablets on the account, not a good fit.
While Smartphones are “prioritized” after 22GB of use, Tablets are “throttled” after 10GB of usage and the speed will drop to 3G speeds after 10GB of usage. Conservatively assume that 22 GB per Smartphone and 10GB per tablet will be the best high speed data usage you will realize.
Do you need all that data? Often users will tell us (while thumping their chests): “I have unlimited data” and to this we say: do you need to pay a premium for the unlimited plan if you are not using it? A typical data user uses around 2GB of data per month. Why spend 30% more for data you may never use? Verizon still offers other, less expensive plans on its website, which range from $35 a month for 2GB of LTE data to $70 a month for 8GB of LTE data.

Why it probably is a better fit for a smaller groups of users:

This does provide a 22 GB plan before being prioritized or throttled and voice and texting are unlimited
The plan is less expensive than the old unlimited plan for 5 users by almost $200 if you are out of contract on all devices
Verizon is offering free devices to those who switch from another carriers
Smaller organizations may not be as impacted by Corporate Discounts
If there are 10 or fewer devices and depending on data usage, this may be a good fit (again, the more usage, the better the plan fit).
Is a better deal than the highest plan used to be available through Verizon before depending on the subscriber usage

A note: Most stated rates do not include device subsidies. Remember that if you are on a device payment plan that will increase the price of the monthly plan. Also, if the device is still in contract, that fee will be added to any of the plans as a $20 increase per device.

Ending Thoughts

Overall, Verizon is tagging this as “Not just Unlimited: VERIZON unlimited”. Verizon contends that because they have a better network, their unlimited is superior in quality to other carrier’s unlimited plans.

A recent study from OpenSignal says that in general, Verizon is the top for signal consistency, T-Mobile and AT&T are in second or third, and Sprint typically is last. So it appears Verizon has a point; however, Verizon will also demand higher pricing than the competition: For 5 devices, Verizon will charge $310 per month, TMobile charge $180, and Sprint will charge $90.

Hope this provided you some tips on whether or not the Verizon Unlimited Plan is a good fit, because we are ……

…….Still Protecting Your Wireless Rights……………………

Jan 20 2017

Verizon Pushes Users off Unlimited Data Plans

Verizon’s highest data users — defined as subscribers regularly gobbling over 200 GB per month — must switch to a limited data plan or risk having the device disconnected.

Users affected are receiving notifications. Verizon spokesperson Kelly Crummey clarified what’s happening in a statement to Ars Technica, “Because our network is a shared resource and we need to ensure all customers have a great mobile experience with Verizon, we are notifying a small group of customers on unlimited plans who use more than 200GB a month that they must move to a Verizon Plan by February 16, 2017.” (full post here)

Verizon confirmed, “Customers who do not move to limited plans will be disconnected.” Those user who are disconnected will have 50 days to re-activate their accounts by signing up for a limited data plan.

Verizon did this in August 2016 when it set a limit of 500GB to disconnect users.

If a user switches to a limited data plan, the fees of a 85GB-per-month plan costs $500 per month, a 150GB plan costs $750 and a 200GB plan costs $1000 –– much different than the previous price of approximately $50 for Unlimited Data. Including talk and text fees, Verizon’s grandfathered unlimited data customers today probably pay about $100 a month. Empty your wallets!

Even though Verizon stopped offering unlimited data plans in 2011, Daren orf of Gizmodo commented in an earlier article (see it here) stating, “though this will only affect people who have been grandfathered into these plans, since Verizon hasn’t offered them for years, it’s the next step in a long series of middle fingers to people who assumed that unlimited meant unlimited.”.

We agree with Daren and address the question of if “unlimited” is really “unlimited” in one of our earlier blogs which you can READ HERE

Bill Police customers who have unlimited plans using over 200GB have been notified and so we are …….

Still Protecting Your Wireless Rights………….

Source: https://www.macobserver.com/news/verizon-drop-unlimited-data-plans/

Mar 22 2016

Big Data: What is it, Why Does it Matter?

We love talking about Big Data because that’s what we do: all day every day. we’re pretty much the nerd super heroes of the wireless billing world.

What is Big Data, you say? Wikipedia says Big Data is a term for Data Sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate. And does this apply to Wireless bills, you ask? (do you really need to ask that – have you looked at your bill recently?) Indeed it does. Let’s look at how we at BPI view and use Big Data.

Billing data provides lots and lots and LOTs of billing data to review, analyze and act on (as you can see from the dude above getting pummeled by all the data). If you are not sure how many choices one has regarding wireless, visit our recent blog on the gargantuan options here.

Here’s a few tips on how to use Wireless Big Data to your benefit:

Data needs to be taken from the unorganized, unprioritized raw form into some more structured and manageable format. This can be done by putting raw data into table and/or database formats. You can do this on your own, but we at BPI have patented software and methodology to put the data into an easy format for analysis.
Next you need to analyze the data: sort what is meaningful from the extra noise and get some valuable trends to create efficiencies in your organization. An example of this would be to identify all the users who have more than one device: do they need several devices or is one at the bottom of a swimming pool sucking up resources while not being used?
Finally, you’ll want to turn these trends into either increased productivity or decreased cost. What are those users who have more than one device costing you? Do they need all those devices or can they be consolidated into one device? (thereby saving you money). Can you have a shared pool of devices for specific use only when the need arises?

Wikipedia concludes its Big Data Definition by stating: Additionally, Accuracy in Big Data may lead to more confident decision making, and better decisions can result in greater operational efficiency, cost reduction and reduced risk.

In other words, once the data is in a manageable format to identify trends, these are the kinds of results you can expect:

This is why we love Big Data so much: it provide BIG RETURNS!

Also, if you have questions about saving your company money through the auditing, optimizing, or managing of wireless services, please click here to contact The Bill Police.

Still Protecting Your Wireless Rights…

Mar 17 2016

March Madness: Heads up for 5 quick ways to Curb Data Madness!

We all love to cheer on our favorite college basketball teams in March. And so do our employees. It is our bet that every so often a user might — just quickly of course – check in to see how the games are going with their corporate device.

In last year’s NCAA Championship Game, a carrier reported that across both the in-stadium and outside the stadium mobile networks, they had more than 2TB cross over their network. That is a lot of data in a few hours, my friends.

Indeed, one of our Clients mentioned that every year their network was brought to its knees during March Madness due to all the employee streaming.

As another data point according to Geekwire, “The San Francisco 49ers front office announced that fans used 10.1 terabytes (TB) of data on Levi’s Stadium WiFi network during the Super Bowl, setting a new record and eclipsing the 6.2 TB of WiFi data used during Super Bowl 49 last year at University of Phoenix Stadium.” That’s a sneak preview of what to expect for March Madness.

Here’s a few thoughts on how to manage the expense:

Set up billing alerts for high data usage in your carrier portal. Check out our blog to provide you with some details here
Let users know to connect to Wifi Networks whenever possible, especially if streaming
Let users know you will be monitoring their bills and checking data usage. While this doesn’t mean you need to be accused of police brutality, it does mean users should be aware of their usage and what it could be costing the company.
Send Text Alerts to users to alert users of high usage and what they can do instead of using their wireless data network. See additional information on that here
Educate the users: let them know if they are streaming 2 hours of a game that is approximately 1 to 1.5 GBs of usage. If their single data plan is 2GB for the entire month, they will need to reduce usage for the rest of the month in order not to exceed their own allowance. Data usage guidelines can be found here

Also, if you have questions about saving your company money through the auditing, optimizing, or managing of wireless services, please click here to contact The Bill Police.

Still Protecting Your Wireless Rights…

Data

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