Verizon to Ditch Most Phone Plans for Shared Ones Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest cellphone company, is dropping nearly all of its phone plans in favor of pricing schemes that encourage consumers to connect their non-phone devices, like tablets and PCs, to Verizon's network. The new plans will become available on June 28, and reflect Verizon's desire to keep growing now that nearly every American already has a phone. The plans let families and other subscribers share a monthly data allowance over up to 10 devices. It's the biggest revamp in wireless pricing in years, and one that's likely to be copied by other carriers. AT&T Inc. has already said that it's looking at introducing shared-data plans soon. Change, across the industry, was inevitable. In the first quarter of this year, phone companies, for the first time, reported a drop in the number of phones on contract-based plans, which are the most lucrative. To keep service revenues rising, the phone companies are betting on increased data usage, and that means getting more data-hungry devices on their networks. Verizon's new "Share Everything" plans, announced Tuesday, include unlimited phone calls and texting, and will start at $90 per month for one smartphone and 1 gigabyte of data. If used only with a smartphone, "Share Everything" prices are lower than for current plans with unlimited calling and texting, but higher than plans with limited calling and texting. The plans will push many subscribers toward spending more, by including unlimited calling and texting by default. Unlimited calling plans provide peace of mind, but not many people need them, and the average number of minutes used is declining. From the carrier's perspective, providing unlimited access is an efficient use of its network, because calling and texting take up very little capacity. Data usage, on the other hand, consumes a lot of network resources. The savings will come to subscribers who add more devices like tablets to their plans. In such cases, the new pricing system will be cheaper compared with separate data plans for each device. Today, few consumers put tablets on data plans, probably because they dread paying an extra $30 or so per month, on top of their phone bills. Under "Share Everything," adding a tablet to a plan will cost $10 per month. Adding a USB data stick for a laptop will cost $20. Verizon's limited-calling and texting plans will disappear, except for one $40-per-month plan intended for "dumb" phones. Verizon is keeping its limited-data plans for single non-phone devices, like the $30 tablet plan. Current Verizon customers will be able to switch to the new plans or keep their old ones, with one exception. Those who have unlimited-data plans for their smartphones won't be able to move those to new phones, unless they pay the full, unsubsidized price for those phones. For example, an iPhone 4S that costs $200 with a two-year contract costs $650 unsubsidized, with no contract. Verizon stopped signing people up for unlimited-data plans last summer. The industry as a whole is moving away from the plans, since the data capacity of their networks is limited.