kps... I did a little checking on this today at the Verizon store because I bought a new Droid... I've been using a 3 year old Blackberry that I finally dropped one too many times. I'm pretty much a neophyte at this sort of thing so take what I say with a grain of salt.
I opted to stay with my original plan as it's almost the same as yours. 2 smartphones and a basic phone with unlimited text and nationwide calling, our bill is slightly higher than yours, about $ 195 which may be due to MM fees or something I can't think of right now.
I used this monthly usage calculator on the Verizon website to figure how much data I would use because that is where the real fees will increase if you go over. Email, text, web browsing don't affect usage very much at all (unless you leave a web page running in background that refreshes itself automatically like ESPN.. etc.) Where the huge increase in data comes from is live streaming of HD video, music streaming... that sort of thing. That calculator will show you that if you stream...say 15 min of video a day, you'll go way over your 2 G in no time at all. Also if you forget to turn your navigator off it's running all the time and more usage goes down the tubes. Add in streaming video from your phone to your computer or flat screen, add in your laptop, I pad or Kindle or stream an NFL game and then see where your bill goes.
My office mgr got a new I phone for Christmas and as we all are with new toys, she messed with SIRI a lot and she blew over the 2G and got a nasty surprise on her bill. My wife and I are older and we don't use all this fancy stuff but I was considering going to 5G plan just to be safe, but then I remembered I have unlimited for $30 so now what the hell if I watch netflix or a Cards game on my phone, or use my laptop where there is no wifi connection.... the way I understand it I will probably be better off where I am.
Here's the chart I used...Make sure you push the tab for 3G -4G smart phones just scroll down to smartphones and click it on 15 min of streaming HD video a day and thats shoots you up over 5 G
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/splash/datacalculatorPopup.jsp
Someone who knows alot more that me about this could probably elaborate much more concisely
Hope this helps.... confused,, I am. after trying to find answers on line I broke down and went to a store that typically has a 1/2 hr wait. When I got the salesperson who was very nice and very knowledgeable, but he couldn't answer squat about the primary concerns I had...ie... will this Droid synch easliy with my microsoft Outlook on my work laptop.... he had no clue. I made a quick call to a techie friend and he said he would set if up for me so not to worry. That took care of that problem... the next one was they didn't know how to set up my email because its through a private server... turns out all I need was to put in pop.fatcow.com for incoming mail and smtp.fatcow.com, put my password in and awaaaaay she went. The employees looked at me with their mouths open... for crying out loud. A 65 year old man showing these punks
how to do it....yea for me
good luck, brah
btw, I've had my new Droid about 6 hours and I gotta lota learning to do.
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i just looked on Sprint and I don't see it. For the Family Unlimited plan the website says it starts at $209.98 for 2 smartphones. I understand that is apparently unlimited minutes, texts, and data but...thats $210
