Verizon changing wireless plan pricing

Boy Genius Report has received screenshots showing Verizon Wireless' upcoming cell phone plan changes. The new plans will take effect on January 18th. Users have long complained that while Verizon may be the best when it comes to coverage and service, their prices are far from affordable. It seems that this may still hold true, even with the changes coming to their plans.

Below are the pictures taken from BGR. You will notice that Verizon has added a pre-paid service, ranging from $44.99 for 450 minutes of just talk, to $94.99 for unlimited talk and text. The big change is in their data plan pricing. Now, certain phones are required to be activated with a data plan. For $9.99 a 3G enabled multimedia phone (such as the enV3, Alias2, etc.) will get 25MB of data, plus pay-as you go data for $1.99/MB. A 3G enabled smartphone (such as the Droid or BlackBerry) will require a $29.99 unlimited data plan.

Verizon, for some reason, is touting their 30% price drop for their new unlimited talk plan like it's something extraordinary. This plan will run $69.99 for unlimited talk, and $89.99 for unlimited talk and text. Of course, if you want data, it'll still cost you an extra $29.99, making their truly unlimited plan $119.99 a month. This may be cheaper than AT&T's $129.99 plan, but Sprint's $99.99 and T-Mobile's $79.99 plans seem to have been completely ignored by whoever made the final decision about Verizon's price changes.

Verizon says that "these new plan are designed to attract and retain high value customers in the marketplace and recognize the growing popularity of devices with more capabilities than ever before." See for yourself if they will achieve that goal or not...