Verizon adds another limited "unlimited" plan further complicating their meaning of unlimited

There used to be a time where unlimited had one meaning: not limited. Times were simple; when we said unlimited, we meant that no limits were placed. Phone companies also used to understand this as well. When they said you had unlimited calls, texts, and data, you had no limit on your calls, texts, and data.

Verizon is still number one, but they struggle with unlimited plans

Then, plans changed and unlimited data disappeared for awhile. If you were lucky enough to be "grandfathered", you could keep the unlimited, but if you slipped up, it was gone. Then, the "uncarrier" flipped the world around and unlimited data plans started to come back. This was excellent news for everyone, and it got even better when Verizon and ATT came back to the unlimited party. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Verizon knows what "unlimited" truly means.

Today, Verizon announced that they were adding an unlimited plan; this would make sense if they didn't already offer two unlimited plans already. So, if you are a Verizon customer, you have your choice between unlimited, more unlimited, or even more unlimited...

Confused yet?

At the lower tier, Verizon offers "GoUnlimited" which offers unlimited data...if you are willing to settle for 480p video streaming and 600Kbps for mobile hotspots so think "Throttled Unlimited". For a pricey increase, you can get "BeyondUnlimited" which will get you 720p video streaming and up to 15GB of 4G LTE hotspot (before being throttled down to 600Kbps). However, after 22GB of data consumption, you go from 4G LTE speeds to basically 2G; we will call this plan "Limited Unlimited".

Now that brings us to their new "unlimited plan" which they call "AboveUnlimited" (it seems they prefer to "Go Beyond and Above" instead of the other way around...enjoy that pun). With this plan you get all that "BeyondUnlimited" offers including the 4G LTE caps; this time you get 75GB before throttling and 20GB of mobile hotspot.

Verizon keeps doubling-down on their definition of "unlimited"

Is 75GB (and even 22GB) a decent amount of data? Sure, but that is not to say it can't easily be filled. For instance, some people use their phones as the only source of internet in their homes; if you live alone, it is actually a fairly economical setup. Using your phone as a hotspot, downloading a couple movies, files, applications, etc. will blow through that 15-20GB of mobile hotspot in days. As for the 4G caps, well, if you use your phone as a primary device for everything, the cap starts to look smaller and smaller.

At this point, I would say it seems pretty clear that Verizon really does not know what the word "unlimited" really means; the last time I looked it up, I did not see, "a number that seems very high to the average person that can be reached". For many, unlimited would mean unlimited; these plans are all just high data plans with "Safety Mode" always enabled. Verizon has a long way to go to be truly unlimited, and they better do it fast with competitors like Sprint and T-Mobile introducing low cost, truly unlimited plans.