Verizon will force heavy data users on its legacy unlimited plans to move to a limited plan -- or they'll be disconnected.
Customers who consistently exceed 200GB of data over several months will have to move to a new Verizon Plan by February 16.
Image: Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless customers on old, unlimited data plans who exceed 200GB a month will need to move to a limited plan by February or face being cut off the network.
The new policy only affects customers still on Verizon Wireless' unlimited data plans and is the carrier's latest effort to move heavy users off the product, which it stopped offering several years ago.
Verizon told Ars Technica that it was now notifying a "small group of customers" who exceed 200GB of data over several months that they'll need to move to a Verizon Plan by February 16.
Verizon's betting that you're willing to pay more for its reliable 4G network than going cheaper with another phone company.
Those customers will be disconnected if they don't move to a limited plan and from there will have 50 days to reconnect to a new valid plan, according to the company.
Verizon said its previous sweep of heavy data users in August 2016 targeted unlimited data customers who averaged 500GB a month.
At the time, the carrier said it was aiming at customers who used "well in excess of" its largest offer, the 100GB plan, which currently costs $450 monthly, excluding line access fees.
As Ars notes, that's a much higher cost than the roughly $100 a month that customers who are still on the grandfathered unlimited data pay today.
The new 200GB policy, first reported by Droid-Life, follows Verizon's move last week to raise its upgrade fee, which is charged when customers buy a new phone, from $20 to $30.
Verizon has also ceased running two-year contract renewals, eliminating the remnants of its old subsidized two-year phone contracts, which it stopped
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