Verizon's policy is that *if* you do a subsidized phone (from VZ or third party) you cannot retain the legacy data plans. If you pay full price - whether from Verizon or a third party - you can keep the legacy plans.

In November, I moved from an old 3G Android on an unlimited plan (with hotspot) to a 4G/LTE Droid Razr (global). I purchased the phone on flEbay at full price (non-subsidized). Verizon gave me a SIM & replaced the grandfathered 3G unlimited data plan with a 4G unlimited data plan. The hotspot feature got replaced by a 4G unlimited hot spot feature. I continue to be grandfathered on those plans.

It has to be done in-person at their stores or by phone, IIRC, but the tethering option was available online.

I added the 100 MB Intl data pack, which has worked well... and I've dumped the TMobile Global BB plan. The Int'l data service cannot be done online.

The TMo plan is domestic only & on their (somewhat inferior) network. I think the $70 plan includes tethering but check their site. The TMobile prepaid plan is a MUCH better deal as it includes 100 minutes talk, unlimited smartphone data, and unlimited text for $30... with tethering being a $15 add-on (bringing the total to $45 a month). But it's domestic & on their network only. (Based on my tests, in a location where I have TMo and ATT HSPA+ service, the TMo service is faster. Unfortunately, when I get more than about 50-60 miles outside of DC, I'm lucky to have much more than EDGE service on TMo, and a recent road trip to Ohio had large areas where TMo was simply unavailable while Verizon and ATT were both good).

Not sure on the tethering, but their HSPA+ is slower than Verizon's LTE. Not suitably fast for my needs, but perhaps is for yours.

My experience was quite close to yours, though with multiple lines. I think it's what you meant, but you don't need to pay "full price" if you buy a non-contracted phone. You could even get a free phone from a friend, or one on the cheap from eBay. In my case, I take phones from a separate business shareplan that are *not* grandfathered (i.e., are eligible for subsidies every couple of years) and swap them in. The people using the shared plans aren't intense users and are fine using the older phones.

Yes, any non-subsidized (or off-contract) phone should work. If you've got multiple people on a plan, it makes sense to do what you're doing.

The only thing I wanted to do was to swap numbers with a non-VZ line (move my VZ number to another carrier and move the number on the other carrier to my VZ account). No can do that - I'd have to give up the VZ number completely, and if I moved both lines to VZ, the second would have to go on a new plan. Why two carriers? I own a secondd property in an area where VZ is spotty but there is an ATT tower virtually next door.

I do think that my current VZ situation is just about ideal for my needs, including int'l travel (second property needs excepted).

I'm about to request a number swap *within* Verizon (i.e., trying to move a phone # from one of my data-limited lines to one of my unlimited lines, and the unlimited line # over to the limited one). My understanding is that this kind of porting doesn't require you to break/renew contract. Is this your understanding too, and are you saying it's different if porting from a non-VZW #?

I should have bought a phone under contract, maybe they would have kept me under the unlimited global data plan. I was taken off like others when my contract expired. Had I known, I would have gotten one before this all took place.

I don't know - you'd have to talk to them. I've got only one number on VZ and it was ported-in several years ago.

I will say this: the customer service call to VZ was good - it was NOT off-shored, and (with respect to the phone change) they pretty much knew the rules & were well versed in porting, including offering options. I'd not hesitate to pose the question to their phone support folks.... retail stores are hit-miss.

Have any of you formerly on GlobalData been moved to a GlobalAccess plan? I seem to have been inadvertently moved to one in the process of getting a 4G handset. It's not a bad deal necessarily - 250mb for $30/month including 4G, but it's not clear what set of countries this applies to.

Sadly (for me) my colleague is still on his original unlimited GlobalData plan. I'm jealous.

They told me it was the same list of countries as the old Unlimited one. The $30/250MB is also discontinued now, so don't give it up unless you are ready.

The replacement is $25/100MB - more per MB, but there are 2 advantages: 1) It is current, so for those that do not need it year round you can add/remove as needed, and 2) overage charges. The old plan had a significant overage per MB charge. The 25/100 plan is simple: Go over 100MB, get charged another $25 and get 100MB more. Basically you just buy it in 100MB chunks as needed.

That isn't great but to me that way of handling overage is huge. It lets me decide what I want to buy or not.

Ah, great to know, thanks. That's actually not too bad, but I presume the big disadvantage is the $25/100 seems to definitely have a shorter list of available countries. Did they confirm that with you as well, or is their website marketing not up to date? I just burned through 200mb in Zambia so I guess I'll confirm for sure once the website updates (side note, it's annoying roaming charges take like 2 weeks to hit the website!)