[pragmatic]

I highly recommend that you measure your actual data usage.

I'm on an unlimited plan and these data numbers look ridiculously low...at first.

Using 3G watchdog, my average usage over 5 months is about 505 MB per month.

With that said, this pricing seems a bit steep.

I pay $113 per month with one smart phone (Droid Bionic 4g) with unlimited data and one dumb phone for my wife. That includes the ridiculous fees + taxes.

With the new plan, I'd pay more $40 + $30 + $50 = $120 and still not get a "free" hotspot b/c the device would have to be on the plan ($20 + $10 for my laptop and kindle fire). This is of course before fees and taxes.

So Verizon had cooked up a price increase under the guise of "friendlier" pricing.

[pragmatic]

I've been contemplating going back to a dumb phone for some time. The problem is, the dumb phone models are all really crappy now. I've been looking for a new one for my wife, but you can't find anything that isn't pure crap. If one were paranoid, one might think the phone companies are doing this on purpose...

[parfe]

I read the plan differently. You could tether your laptop through your smartphone's hotspot feature without paying for the laptop.

You only need to add the device if it is directly connecting to the cell network, like through a laptop's 3G card.