Verizon confirms an end to its unlimited data plans starting July 7

Verizon has confirmed that as of July 7, it will be ending unlimited smartphone data for new customers. It’s been known for a long time that Verizon would make the move, and it’s been known since the third week of June that July 7 was the date, but this is the first time Verizon has confirmed it.

Spokeswoman Brenda Raney told FierceWireless that smartphone customers will have their choice of three monthly data tiers: $30 for 2GB, $50 for 5GB, and $80 for 10GB. Feature phone users will be able to opt in to a $10 for 75MB monthly plan. All tiers have a $10 per GB overage charge.

Existing customers will be grandfathered in to the $30 unlimited plan. Good news, although it was expected: users will be able to keep that plan even if they upgrade their handset.

More bad news: Verizon also is modifying its LTE mobile hotspot service, available for smartphones like the HTC ThunderBolt, the LG Revolution and Samsung Droid Charge. The LTE mobile hotspot feature is currently free and unlimited, but beginning July 7, those who have been using the LTE mobile hotspot service will be (sort of) grandfathered in with a $30 per month charge for unlimited LTE mobile hotspot use. That’s better than for new customers, who will have to pay $20 for an mere 2 GB of data to be used for mobile hotspot service (as a separate bucket).

In other words, if you want to get an unlimited data plan on the Verizon network, you’d better head over to a Verizon store, head online, or call a Verizon rep today or tomorrow.

This will also mean that after tomorrow, Sprint will be the only of the big 4 wireless carriers in the U.S. to have true unlimited data plans. T-Mobile advertises unlimited data, but throttles data transfers after 5GB.

That said, most studies thus far show smartphone users are nowhere near any of these data tiers. Unfortunately, it’s a truism that the outlier of today is the normal user of tomorrow