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Comment by j_s | Hacker News Reader

Verizon still has legacy unthrottled unlimited (kicked off after 200GB?) customers. I'm trying to figure out what I should do with 2 lines I don't want to afford anymore.

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Had the same plan - moved to MetroPCS (T-Mobile's pre-paid network. Includes VoLTE/Wifi Calling/answering on other iOS devices) $60 unlimited. 30GB of data before speed throttling, and 8GB of hotspot data. Haven't hit the upper limit once of either metric in the time I've had it.

I was paying $140ish a month with Verizon (included hot spot, which was an extra $30 a month), now I pay $60.

That sounds like a great deal! I'm looking at Google Fi for two phones: one-time ~$1000 for two phones + $20+$15/month for unlimited voice/text + $10/GB which I plan to WiFi apart from maps.

2 [unlimited] lines I don't want to afford anymore.

My family was grandfathered in to the unlimited unthrottled Verizon plan, and while it still existed I was using a "dumb phone" without a data plan. After the unlimited plan was no longer on the market, I got a smartphone, and that somehow kicked the other 7 lines on my family plan off the unlimited plan that they were grandfathered into.

In short, hey, can I pay you to use one of those spare lines?

I'm surprised Verizon hasn't "transitioned" these legacy accounts to a "newer, better and faster" (cough) accounts..

I presume there are some legal reason why they haven't done so yet?

They try super-hard to do so every time there's a change on the account (probably 90%+ were lost when the "free phone" came with a new contract), and they've raised prices (+$20/line). They also instituted the 200GB (maybe 100GB) limit.

http://www.droid-life.com/2015/10/08/verizons-20-unlimited-p...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/01/11...

http://www.droid-life.com/2016/07/26/fyi-verizon-unlimited-d...

The amount of hell they would receive for doing so, T-Mobile got a large amount of flak for transitioning legacy customers to Simple Choice plans. Instead of incurring the PR nightmare that would be, Verizon is just making these plans unappealing with soft caps (they did this to force people off unlimited mobile broadband plans, the number of customers I had yell at me when I worked for a VZW call center because their internet connection was severly throttled was mind-boggling) and by refusing to give subsidized upgrades without changing to a newer plan.

Sell them... (Though I'm not sure what it takes to do an assumption of liability for those unlimited accounts these days)

This. Take a look at the listings for them on ebay; they're worth at least a grand. A buddy of mine bought one a few months ago and he's super happy with it. I wish I hadn't been a cheap college student and canceled mine a few years back.

Don't feel bad. It's just a matter of time before regular plans get data caps that high.

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