Verizon’s Chief Financial Officer, Fran Shammo revealed that there were plans to discontinue the unlimited data plan for iPhone users as early as mid-summer, back in March. Word is out about Verizon moving to tiered data plans as early as July 7th for their new customers. It was previously known that July 7th would be the date that marked something new for Verizon after the company had just extended the free 4G hotspot promotion one more time to the 6th. Employees were also receieving training over the last few weeks on a new point-of-sale system, along with new account management tools that hinted at family plan changes. What wasn’t known was that the big change was the tiered data plans, which are now being expected to be released the day after the promotion ends (July 7th) for new customers. One thing to note is that this tiered data plan is applicable to both 3G and 4G smartphones, confirming that they are not separate plans depending on device. If you are under contract currently, you should be fine and you don’t need to run out and buy a 4G phone just to lock in as we have seen other sites recommending doing that. Verizon is set to offer the following data plans: 2 GB for $30/month 5 GB for $50/month 10 GB for $80/month Verizon offers the official mobile hotspot feature as well, which is set to cost an extra $20 a month. The hotspot comes with its own 2GB monthly data pool, one separate from the iPhone’s data plan.This is compared to AT&T’s hotspot feature which offers 200 MB for 15/month or 2GB for $25 a month. AT&T also charges $10 per GB if you go over the limit. The mobile hotspot feature on AT&T is only available to customers who opt for the DataPro plan and users get an additional 2 GB of monthly data usage. Existing Verizon customers should have the option to keep their unlimited data plans through the tenure of their contract, however, it needs to be seen if Verizon will allow them to grandfather the unlimited data plans when they want to upgrade to the next generation iPhone. The unlimited data plans are currently seen as a unique selling point to Verizon’s iPhone as AT&T stopped offering iPhone customers unlimited data plans just before the iPhone 4 was launched. What do you think of the rumored tiered data plans from Verizon? Would the lack of an unlimited data plan be a deal breaker for you? Let us know what you think in the comments section below! As usual, stay tuned for more news and info on the topic Facebook, Twitter, and/or subscribing to our RSS feed. Read More You may also like to read: Authors: