Report: Verizon once again to oust high-end users on unlimited plans

Verizon customers on unlimited plans who consume an average of 200 GB of data or more per month must move to a new plan or switch carriers in the next month.

The nation’s largest carrier told its employees last week that customers who surpass the 200 GB-per-month threshold risk losing their unlimited data plans by Feb. 16, Droid Life reported this morning. The move followed Verizon’s announcement last July that it planned to kill service to customers on unlimited plans who consume “extraordinary” amounts of data unless they switched plans.

Verizon stopped offering unlimited data to new customers in July 2011, roughly a year after AT&T discontinued its own unlimited data service. The carrier last year introduced plans with a high-end, "XX-Large" offering of 24 GB per for $110 per month. Its 100 GB plan costs $450 per month.

Verizon remains staunchly opposed to unlimited data plans even as its rivals rushed to offer unlimited data last year. T-Mobile and Sprint both introduced unlimited data plans last August, and AT&T last year began to offer unlimited data to its customers who also subscribe to DirecTV.

Verizon maintains that unlimited data simply isn’t viable in a world of ever-increasing mobile data usage, however.

“At the end of the day, the majority of people don’t need unlimited plans. But the people who use unlimited plans can be abusive; they can really wreak havoc to your network,” former Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said during an investors conference several months ago. “You cannot make money in an unlimited video world. You just cannot do it, because you need the cash flow to keep up with your demand.”