A message for Verizon customers:
Verizon announced on Monday that it's giving all of its wireless mobile customers, including consumers and small businesses, an extra 15GB of data starting on March 25 until April 30.
The extra 15GB of data applies to customers on both metered and unlimited plans, and customers don't need to do anything to get the extra data — Verizon says "the data will automatically be added to your plan."
For customers who already have unlimited data, the extra 15GB of data is going toward mobile hotspot functionality. Verizon unlimited plan customers get between zero, 15GB, or 30GB of mobile hotspot data by default, depending on which version of Verizon's unlimited plan customers are signed up to.
For those on metered plans, mobile hotspot functionality uses up your regular data limit.
Here's the information from Verizon:
"From March 25 through April 30, wireless consumer and small business customers will see an additional 15GB of data added to their plan for no additional charge. New consumer and business customers can also take advantage of this additional data. Specifically: For those staying at home as much as possible these days, reaching a mobile data limit may not be much of a concern, as many people are connecting their smartphones to their home's WiFi internet. Since staying at home, I've only used 0.32 GB of wireless mobile data in the last 15 days — 2% of my 8GB data allowance on my plan. In another 15 days, after a month's cycle, I may use under a gigabyte of mobile data when I typically use several gigabytes.
But Verizon's move should still be a welcome one. Should "the internet" experience a hiccup, or your WiFi dies for whatever reason, you can use your smartphone's mobile hotspot feature as a quick backup until your internet or WiFi gets back online.