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Tech Report: Who Benefits From Verizon's Share Everything Plan?

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — Verizon Wireless will soon offer consumers a "Share Everything" plan, where customers will be able to connect up to 10 devices to a pool data plan. But who will really benefit from this?

Anybody who has multiple devices and wants to share data, such as families, would likely benefit. But the other people who will benefit are those who talk and text a lot because the plan has unlimited calls and texts. Prior to that, it was a much more expensive option. So if a customer usually exceeds the allotted minutes, this could be a good deal.

But for individuals who talk a modest amount and want to use a lot of data, they may end up paying much more.

KCBS Tech Report:

I think Verizon is trying to move to a data-centric world. They realize that voice is becoming a loss leader, which may sound funny to those of us who think of phones as ways to talk. But things are changing, and phones have increasingly become data devices.

Data isn't a scarce resource, but there is a limited amount of bandwidth or spectrum. Companies have felt that if they give away an unlimited amount, which they'll wind up having too much demand on their capacity, so now they're metering and charging for it, figuring they'll make more money.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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