[taj1991]

Alltel officially merges with Verizon on July 11th in my area which is conveniently 2 days before the speculated release of the Blackberry Tour. I currently have a BB 8830 on Alltel with a SmartChoice plan on my line of a 4- person family plan. Will my plan or how much I am charged be altered when I buy a Verizon device? Keep in mind that the other three lines are under contract and will not be upgrading. I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post this but I know that many of you are Verizon Customers and have information on the plans. If I do have to change, how much are family plans with a blackberry on one of the lines? Thanks

[ducey99]

It depends. I think they start around 99.99 with unlimited data and messaging. Check on verizonwireless.com I may be wrong but I think that if you get a verizon phone then you have to get a verizon plan. Others please feel free to chime in on this if I'm wrong.

[4Him#IM]

I am also an Alltel customer and am looking at the Tour. I was told by my local Alltel store that unless you changed plans, you current plan will remain the same until your contract is up. I too have a family plan. Only 1 phone under contract. I do not know how they are going to handle Verizon phones with Alltel customers that have current plans. I'm guessing that since you are still technically under contract with the family plan, this will just extend the plan with a new phone. But just a guess.

[cedar]

I am guessing VZW plans to use their phone lineup as a "hook" to get people with legacy Alltel plans to switch to VZW Nationwide... much like they've been doing to get people off of VZW's old America's Choice plans. Basically, sure you can keep your old plan... UNLESS you want a fancy new phone. -insert lightning and evil laughter here -

So be prepared, at the worst, for your entire family plan to be switched over to a VZW Nationwide plan. Maybe they'll just do it to your line somehow. Check out vzw.com and pick out a Nationwide Family Plan that resembles what you have and that'll be what they'll probably convert you to... and the personal BIS provision on Verizon is $30... I believe Alltel is/was the same in that regard.

[tlo07]

You will be able to stay on your Alltel plan as long as you want to use your current Alltel phone. I'm in the same boat. Common sense tells me to stay on my Alltel plan until my Curve drops dead, but... my Blackberry sense tells me to get the Tour! I just don't know what happens to my "pal" phone at that point.

[R.O.C.]

To my understanding the SmartChoice plans will be granfathered into Verizon, but like others have stated, if you want to upgrade your phone, you may need to sign into a Nationwide plan. Now here's where the confusion begins. On a SmartChoice plan you're paying either $20 or $40 per extra line on the account ($20 for a traditional phone with no data, $40 for a smart phone). Now, on the Verizon plans, your secondary lines might only be $10 (again for a phone with no data plan), and even with the VCast VPak (essentially data for a non-smart phone) you're still only paying $25 total for the line ($10 for the line + $15 for the VCast VPak). Compare this to the $40 you might be currently be paying with Alltel, and you're saving a decent amount. But if you're secondary plans are all BlackBerry's or Smart Phones, then you're still going to be paying $40 per line.
So if they tell you that you have to change your plan, then I would like to see what they do with your secondary lines. It makes sense that those lines would transfer over as well and hopefully you'll be paying less.

I think I got it all... Hope it helps...