Burlington, Vt. - A top Verizon Wireless official announced that the company is ditching its unlimited data plan, Wednesday.
It was first reported by Fierce Wireless that Verizon CFO Fran Shammo made the announcement at an industry conference. The news went viral, and other news outlets, including CNN and ABC jumped on board.
This is not a new message from Shammo. According to a video from May, 2011 by Reuters, he set up the end of unlimited back then.
"More and more people are going to be downloading video to their handsets so unlimited doesn't work anymore," Shammo said.
To be clear, last July, Verizon announced that all new customers could not get an unlimited data plan. However, it allowed any previous customers with data to continue to get unlimited. That means Wednesday's announcement would get rid of unlimited plans for all Verizon customers.
The message seems loud and clear from Shammo. But, Verizon released a vague news release, Thursday saying, "we will share details of the plans and any related policy changes well in advance of their introduction."
We reached out to a Verizon spokesperson to clarify. They responded saying,"I don't think there is a story - nothing has changed - no announcement has been made."
Shammo does not appear to be on the same page.
"You're going to have to pay for your usage cause it's not going to be economical," Shammo said last May.
Verizon is not the only major company to talk about the end of unlimited. AT&T has already gotten rid of the option and reports are that Sprint will as well.
One option that remains is straight talk, a prepaid wireless service that does not require long term contracts.
