Verizon to offer $30 unlimited iPhone data plan? (Update: for a limited time)

Getting kinda cocky with our network are we now Verizon?  The Wall St. Journal reports their conversation with Lowell McAdam the incoming Verizon CEO:

“I’m not going to shoot myself in the foot,” he said. Not offering an unlimited plan would put up a barrier for customers who might otherwise switch from AT&T, he said. The country’s No. 2 carrier still has millions of subscribers grandfathered into unlimited plans they signed up for before AT&T switched to tiered pricing last summer.

Verizon has been having some blips with its network over the past month in anticipation of the iPhone.  Looking at this chart, they could be in for a huge data tidal wave.  It will be interesting to see if they can hold up.  Verizon is also charging $50 more for the iPhone off plan than AT&T, something its current customers might have to deal with.

Update: But you’d better act fast. Speaking later Tuesday morning, Mr. McAdam said the iPhone unlimited plan will be a temporary offer and that the carrier will follow AT&T’s move to tiered pricing in the not too distant future.

Also of note: Subscriber growth slowed on Verizon in anticipation of the iPhone (at least that is what is implied).  

Analysts seemed happy with the subscriber growth, but McAdam wasn’t. “It wasn’t what I hoped it would be,” he said.

Verizon did outdo analyst expectations.