Verizon Lifting Data Caps for First Responders

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UPDATE Verizon announced it’s lifting all data caps for its public safety customers this week, with no price increase for existing customers. The new plan was implemented immediately in Hawaii because of Hurricane Lane and along the west coast, which is in the midst of wildfire season.

Key features included in the new data plans for first responders are, the removal of all data caps or access restrictions, Tami Erwin, executive vice president of operation for Verizon Wireless told IWCE’s Urgent Communications. The new plan includes unlimited access for first responders.

She characterized it as an access rather than a pricing change, in response to what the carrier has heard from first responders and public safety officials. Customers must formally accept the new terms for them to become effective. Similar to FirstNet, the new Verizon data plan includes priority data access via any kind of mobile device for first responders.

Verizon was criticized last week when a lawsuit revealed the carrier slowed the data speed for the Santa Clara County Fire Department, during a wildfire emergency, because the department exceeded its data cap, Inside Towers reported. Verizon said that was a mistake and it’s taking steps to prevent something like this from happening in the future.

Erwin told Urgent Communications, the data plan change for first responders is not a reaction to the Santa Clara incident. The carrier has been working on the data offerings for eight months, she said. “This is not in response to what has happened [last] week, but rather in response to what customers have been telling us and the increase in natural disasters that we’ve seen.”

August 27, 2018