Verizon has decided to remove all speed cap restrictions for first responder subscribers, like the California firefighters who recently experienced throttling on their "unlimited" plan. A new actually unlimited plan with priority access and without caps is also being developed, and the company pledges to lift restrictions in the future for "public safety customers" like the California firefighters in future disaster events.

If you haven't followed the drama this week (since we haven't covered it), Verizon was accused of throttling a fire department's "unlimited" data during a wildfire response in California. As a result, the fire department had to pay twice as much to lift throttling. According to the county, Verizon's actions were "actively impeding County Fire's ability to provide crisis-response and essential emergency services." Verizon maintained that it was the result of a "customer support mistake" and that "this situation has nothing to do with net neutrality," though the county argued otherwise.

Most of us probably know that US carriers rampantly abuse the term "unlimited" by applying it to their services even though they include caps and throttling limits, but one would have assumed Verizon would have considered the storm of bad PR that would surround throttling firefighters' "unlimited" plans in the middle of a wildfire. "Customer support mistake" or not, Verizon (and other carriers') nomenclature remains disingenuous to consumers.

In today's press release, Verizon played up is prior association as the "trusted provider of choice" when it comes to public safety, apologizing for its recent actions throttling firefighters mid-fire, "we didn’t live up to our own promise of service and performance excellence when our process failed some first responders on the line, battling a massive California wildfire."

As part of the apology, Verizon plans on "introducing a new plan that will feature unlimited data, with no caps on mobile solutions and automatically includes priority access." It isn't immediately clear if these new plans will be exclusive to first responders or if they're intended for general use, though the former is more likely. Details are expected next week, and service can be upgraded to this new plan at no additional cost.

For more information, check out the full PR just below:

PRESS RELEASE