We’ve been waiting for this moment, and now that it’s here, I wish is sort of never arrived. Verizon has unveiled their Share Everything data plans, and to my dismay, they aren’t very family friendly. The new plans package unlimited voice, text, and data across up to ten tablets, laptops, modems, and phones. You pay a flat price for each individual device you add to the plan as well as one flat price for a specific amount of data to be shared by these devices.

I’m very perplexed by these new plans as I thought they were meant to ease the pain of the high expenses incurred by having multiple devices, all of which are required to have data plans. If I were to switch to the new Shared Everthing plan that Verizon is so kindly offering, I’d actually have to pay more!

I currently pay $80 for my plan, $30 for my unlimited data, $30 for my wife’s unlimited data, $10 for her phone on the family plan and $10 for my daughters phone (dumb phone) on the family plan. So that’s:

$80 + $30 + $30 + $10 + $10 = $160

If I switch to the money saving Shared Everything plan, I will have to pay $40 for my phone, $40 for my wife’s phone, $30 for my daughters phone, and then $70 for 4GB of data (about what me and my wife use). That’s:

$40 + $40 + $30 + $70 = $180

I get to pay $20 more and lose my unlimited data!?

Now to be fair, I don’t have unlimited talk and text on my current plan. We share 1400 minutes but thanks to features like Friends and Family, we barely use 1000 minutes a month. Then there’s the texting. While I don’t use text, my wife and daughter do and that’s something like an extra $15 so that still brings my bill to $5 less than what it would be on a Shared Everything. Where’s the savings?

The new Shared Everything plan may work out for some of you, but I don’t see it saving any families with multiple smartphone’s much of anything.

Take a look at these new plans versus your current plan and let us know if you’d be saving any money by switching and if so, how much?

• SourceVerizon