Verizon shared data plans coming soon?

You may have heard of the mythical Verizon shared data plan in which one pool of data (bandwidth) is made available to a number of devices, instead of blindly charging $59 per device (or whatever the amount is these days). If the pricing is reasonable, the idea is great for families, small businesses and power users who want one account for many devices.

Although Verizon said that the plan would show up sometime in 2012, we still don’t know when it will show up. Today’s rumor indicated that Verizon has started training employees on the matter, which suggests that the shared plan would show up… hopefully soon. This would be consistent with the previous sighting of those plans, or the training materials spotted more than 6 months ago.

I believe that not having this type of plan is a major brake for broadband adoption, or even expansion. Most people don’t use their data allotment already and it would be foolish to think that they would pay the full price for another data-enabled device that they would use even less than their smartphone. We’re looking forward to seeing this new plan in action. [via Engadget]