Verizon Mobile Cuts Off Subscription of 'Unlimited' Plan Customers for 'Using Too Much Data'
Verizon has admitted to cutting off 8,500 customers in the rural United States, many of whom have signed up for an "Unlimited" data plan. The network explains that these former customers are outside of the areas, making it unprofitable for Verizon to continue serving them.
The purge started back in June, when Verizon said that they were dropping from their service "a small group of customers" who they claimed to be using too much data, "some as much as a terabyte or more a month," outside of their network coverage, according to Ars Technica.
These customers signed up for Verizon's LTE service via the company's LTE in Rural America (LRA) program, where small rural carriers build their own wireless networks by renting the telco's spectrum rights.
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Verizon's customers can use these networks for free, according to the terms of the partnership. The catch, however, is that Verizon has to pay roaming fees to these rural carriers for their customers to use them, as BGR reports.
"Approximately 8,500 customers – using a variety of plans – were notified this month that we would no longer be their service provider after October 17, 2017," Verizon official Kelly Crummey said.
"These customers live in 13 states (Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah and Wisconsin) and in areas outside of where Verizon operates our own network," Crummey added. Apparently, Verizon can no longer turn a profit from their customers, so they are dropping them.
"The roaming costs generated by these lines exceed what these consumers pay us each month," Crummey continued, despite the importance of cellular phones in these rural areas.
Verizon, for its part, is just looking to protect its profits from some of its customers, many of whom cannot even determine if they are using an LTE partner network or not.
"I guess small-town America means nothing to these people," one customer, who says her family only used 50 GB across four lines, said. It's not just the customers that the telco is abandoning, though. Verizon is pulling out of rural service agreements in several states as well, according to Bangor Daily News.
