Verizon Broadband Information

Verizon Broadband

Verizon broadband is just one of the services offered by Verizon Communications Incorporated and is likely to be one the fastest growing segments of the company due to the explosion in mobile devices such as tablets and air cards.  Verizon was one of the original Baby Bells that was formed out of the antitrust judgment levied against AT&T with its name after the dissolution becoming Bell Atlantic.  It wasn’t until Bell Atlantic merged with GTE in the year 2000 that its name was changed to the now familiar Verizon Communications.

Through acquisitions such as its purchase of MCI and the many divestitures that it has made since the year 2000 Verizon broadband has become probably one of the best known names in mobile communications.  The company has not been without its share of controversies though such as the one in 2006 where it was accused of turning over millions of customer records to the National Security Agency. The charge was initially flatly denied by Verizon, only later having to admit doing it 94,000 times with 720 of those being without any kind of court order.  A situation that Sprint found themselves in as well, so remember big brother may be watching.

Verizon broadband data plans come in for basic varieties and are broken down as 3G mobile broadband plans, 4G mobile broadband plans, mobile broadband for 3G tablets and prepaid mobile broadband plans.  Fees on monthly service plans range from a low of $20.00 a month for 1 GB of data up to $80.00 a month for 10 GB of data transfer.  Prepaid plans offered are daily, weekly and monthly with a single day’s access going for $15.00 with 100 MB of data and the monthly pre-paid plan coming in at $80.00 for 5 GB of data.

Verizon broadband data plans are pretty much in line price wise with other broadband providers such as AT&T and T-Mobile.  Overage charges occur when you use up your monthly allowance of data such as 5 GB.  Other companies such as T-Mobile do not charge for overages when you exceed the limit; they simply throttle back your connection speed until your next billing period.

Presently Verizon broadband plans charge $10.00 per gigabyte for any overages you may experience during the month  This means when choosing your Verizon broadband data plan be very mindful of how much data you’ll be using, also keep an eye on your data usage through your Verizon broadband control panel and make sure that you are signed up for alerts so that you know when you’re reaching your prescribed limit.  This will be much better than receiving a massive bill at the end of the month that you weren’t expecting.  It will all soon be a moot point though since Verizon will be revamping their data plans in the summer of 2011 and in all likelihood their overage charges as well.

Please remember when signing up for 4G Verizon broadband service that you will need a 4G capable device and be inside a 4G coverage area in order to receive the stated download speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps.  Since 4G service at the moment is pretty much limited to major cities and well traveled corridors please scrutinize the coverage map carefully.  As more and more 4G service is rolled out though this will become less and less of a factor.  Verizon broadband has stated that they will be finished with their 4G roll out at the end of 2012.

Verizon broadband like the rest of the mobile broadband providers provides discounted USB air cards for laptops and other devices.  Be aware though when using the discount you’ll be signing up for a two year contract and it’s a contract that has some steep pre-cancellation fees attached to it, but this is no different than any other mobile broadband service provider.

Verizon Broadband Video