The EVDO offering from Verizon Wireless has been touted by the company as an “unlimited” service; instead, the service is very much limited as the telco shut down the account of one notable customer, ConsumerAffairs.com, for exceeding a limit.
The report on ConsumerAffairs.com noted that using Verizon’s EVDO broadband service like a broadband account violated a little-known clause in the terms of service.
A letter from Verizon accused ConsumerAffairs.com of exceeding 10 Gigabytes of usage in a 30 day period. “This level of usage is so extraordinarily high that it could only have been attained by activities, such as streaming and/or downloading movies and video, prohibited by the terms and conditions,” Verizon told the website.
But an access log that is part of the AccessManager accompanying the EVDO services showed less than 2 gigabytes of service over the course of a year.
“Unlimited” isn’t a misleading term from Verizon’s perspective, though. ConsumerAffairs.com said the section covering this only appears once in the terms of service, “sunk in the final page in a sea of small font.”
That restriction limits users of the service to Internet browsing, email, and intranet access. Hardly a compelling list of allowed usage for a so-called broadband connection that tops out at 700 kbps.
And forget about using Verizon Wireless unlimited with the burgeoning number of Software-as-a-Service applications being created and launched regularly. The terms of service forbid connections “with server devices or with host computer applications.”
Verizon Wireless makes the argument that “wireless spectrum is a limited and finite service.” But the company charges dearly for EVDO, with monthly fees starting at $59.99 per month for customers who have a Verizon cellphone account.
If anything, Verizon and other providers should be building out capacity to encourage usage of SaaS applications like CRM and others. Technology like WiMax promises to approach DSL and cable speeds, and enable delivery of richer content.
That would be worth the price. Sixty bucks is a lot to pay for the World Wide Web of 1994, static text and images, when consumers have very modern demands for content.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
