Verizon Wireless Plan Changes

It looks like I may be getting a smart phone, an iphone 4S to be exact, this weekend!

Did you see/hear the announcement yesterday about the start of shared data plans on June 28th? Essentially Verizon is switching over to plans that will charge per data shared instead of minutes shared (like current plans).

I'm due for a new phone (a have a non-smart/dumb phone right now) and was hoping to wait out until iphone 5 in the fall.  I hadn’t decided if I’d get iphone 5 or get 4S (assuming that the price would drop); but with the changes, it looks like it may be cheaper on a monthly bill basis to get the 4s iphone before June 28th. Is anyone else in this boat?

This is what I've figured out (I'm still on a family plan with 4 phones because my Dad gets a government discount; so I just send them a monthly check for my share.  We have 1 smart phone on the current account, my sister, of course.):

 
My parents pay $30/month for one 2GB data package right now. If I got a phone before June 28, based on chatting with the Verizon help woman it'd be the same, $30/month for 3GB; so $60 total/month for 4GB for both us.

It says certain customers will have the option to stay as is or to switch to new plan. If my sister kept her package and I got a phone after June 28th, then it looks like I'd be forced to pay $50/month for just 1 GB; so total we'd pay $80total/month for 3GB of service....

Otherwise, if we both switched to the new plan it's $60/month for 2 GB of service or $70/month for 4GB of service;

Either way, it looks like for a shared family, it's actually cheaper to switch now if we're only going to have 2 phones using data? Do you agree?

Hmmm; I'll post more info when I get it! It appears there's a calculator out to help you decide which plan is best for you.