Verizon To Throttle 4G LTE Users With Unlimited Plans

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If you have an unlimited plan with Verizon, I've got bad news for you. Thanks to Skripka for the heads up.

Verizon will begin throttling 4G LTE customers on unlimited data plans starting on October 1, 2014. Before this change, Verizon only throttled 3G connections of those with unlimited data plans. Verizon likes to dress up this as “Network Optimization” which according to them means that a customer will only be throttled if:
  • Top 5% of data users (you use 4.7GB of data per month or more)
  • Enrolled on an unlimited data plan or feature
  • Have fulfilled their minimum contract term
  • Are attempting to use data on a cell site that is experiencing high demand
 
And oh btw, we will raise prices for these plan as well..... Can you HEAR ME NOW!!!! :rolleyes:

Deregulation works wonders doesn't it....:confused:
 
wonder why they didn't start earlier..... T-mobile's 700mhz deployment starts end-2014/early 2015, I'd see a lot of people moving to T-mobile's unlimited if their 700mhz deployment goes well

Maybe it's part of their XLTE strategy - places with XLTE won't experience this "network optimization" / throttle, while areas without XLTE will need that throttle to prevent overcrowding (since it "costs" unlimited users nothing to load youtube, while other users pay through their data bucket to load youtube)
 
Pffffft! I sold my grandfathered plan a few months ago and switch to T-Mobile. While service is great where I live, I've already been bitten by the lack of coverage compared to Big Red. Still, I'm happy to pay the cheaper price.... and I think John Legere is hilarious.
 
Deregulation works wonders doesn't it....:confused:
I don't know, does it? Cellular carriers certainly aren't deregulated, and in fact the anti-competitive regulations put in place are blamed for creating monopolies.
 
This is BS. I have an unlimited Verizon plan and I pay for it. I'm not a hog. I use about 9 gigs a month that is all. 30 gigs last month since I used it as a hotspot but that was unusual. I paid full price for my phone so I could keep my unlimited. This kind of pisses me off.:mad:
 
I don't know, does it? Cellular carriers certainly aren't deregulated, and in fact the anti-competitive regulations put in place are blamed for creating monopolies.

Source?

It was regulation that prevented AT&T from absorbing T-Mobile to become a very powerful monopoly.
 
Reasons I'm switching to straight talk.. paying 175 a month for 2 lines is just nuts. I have one line that's still grandfathered in. I don't really use more then 1 gig of data a month but it's nice to know it's there. Always on wireless now days, since its pretty much every where.
 
The only scenario that makes sense is: "Are attempting to use data on a cell site that is experiencing high demand." Just do this all of the time and give everyone unlimited data, bu then when people complain of slow service they will either A. have to upgrade the tower or connection, or B. lose customers because of their overburdened and slow service.
 
Source?

It was regulation that prevented AT&T from absorbing T-Mobile to become a very powerful monopoly.

Careful, he'll take out of context snippets, slightly reword them as if to sound like his own, and link to other articles masking his plagiarism all while ignoring any contradictory evidence that would refute his own statements. If you're lucky, he'll actually source from an article that supports regulation but try to paint it as the exact opposite. Be prepared to debunk anything Ducman says.
 
This is BS. I have an unlimited Verizon plan and I pay for it. I'm not a hog. I use about 9 gigs a month that is all. 30 gigs last month since I used it as a hotspot but that was unusual. I paid full price for my phone so I could keep my unlimited. This kind of pisses me off.:mad:

It would seem that by verizon's definition, hog means you use 5GB a month or more, so you would indeed be a hog.
 
Reasons I'm switching to straight talk.. paying 175 a month for 2 lines is just nuts. I have one line that's still grandfathered in. I don't really use more then 1 gig of data a month but it's nice to know it's there. Always on wireless now days, since its pretty much every where.

Go Cricket, not Straight Talk. Straight Talk are jackasses. I bought a 1 year card from Amazon marketplace and it activated on their site, but they canceled it a month or so later. Called them up and their reason was that I bought it from an unauthorized retailer.

Their site is also horrible, though Cricket's isn't very good either.
 
I flat-out cannot see how Verizon stays in business. They seem to be the most expensive, and now they're going to throttle too? I don't get the loyalty. I guess I'll open my own abuse shop, treat my customers like cash registers, and tell them they're bad customers for not paying more. Make them feel guilty about paying "so little!"
 
I already switch to month to month @ $45 unlimited everything. High upfront cost with having to buy your own phone, but the break-even point is 10 months for me (Nexus 5).

I don't miss Verizon.
 
I flat-out cannot see how Verizon stays in business. They seem to be the most expensive, and now they're going to throttle too? I don't get the loyalty. I guess I'll open my own abuse shop, treat my customers like cash registers, and tell them they're bad customers for not paying more. Make them feel guilty about paying "so little!"

Because few consumers look out for themselves, and they either don't know or don't care that the choices they make affect everyone. That's how the free market works.

On the one hand, those with Verizon deserve to get ripped off. On the other hand, those with Verizon are keeping that terrible company around and stocked with plenty of money, which directly hurts competition which is generally less bad with pricing and customer service.

I wish I could dump Verizon from my apartment, but my apartment building is only wired for FIOS, and Comcast isn't that much better (and is in my experience far more problematic). Not the subject of the thread I know, but it's the same company after all.
 
I wish I could dump Verizon from my apartment, but my apartment building is only wired for FIOS, and Comcast isn't that much better (and is in my experience far more problematic). Not the subject of the thread I know, but it's the same company after all.

Verizon won't survive a month on FiOS alone. It's their wireless. And, by and large, there is usually enough coverage in an area to move to another carrier. A less expensive carrier. No, I truly believe people just love paying the Verizon bill, and I don't get that.
 
Verizon won't survive a month on FiOS alone. It's their wireless. And, by and large, there is usually enough coverage in an area to move to another carrier. A less expensive carrier. No, I truly believe people just love paying the Verizon bill, and I don't get that.

It's b/c those people have enough money not to have to scour their bills. I don't make enough money to just let companies/utilities just willy nilly charge me. I call places and straight up ask for discounts, play pity cards, whatever I can do to get a discount. I don't know why most of these companies can't be satisfied with their profits without expecting so much more every year.

Most of the problem is rampant cronyism and unregulated capitalism happening in this country. Until, and I have no clue how this can happen anymore, we get it in check it will continue unabated and theoretically get even worse.
 
Verizon won't survive a month on FiOS alone. It's their wireless. And, by and large, there is usually enough coverage in an area to move to another carrier. A less expensive carrier. No, I truly believe people just love paying the Verizon bill, and I don't get that.

Where I live you're not going to get shit for coverage unless you are on AT&T or Verizon. I have Verizon just because I've had it for years and the coverage is slightly better here. Most of the smaller carriers in there area don't even have 4G, let alone unlimited 4G. And the one's that are "unlimited" 4G will kick you back to 3G after something like 500 MB. I wish there was more competition, but in a lot of areas it just doesn't exist.
 
This is BS. I have an unlimited Verizon plan and I pay for it. I'm not a hog. I use about 9 gigs a month that is all. 30 gigs last month since I used it as a hotspot but that was unusual. I paid full price for my phone so I could keep my unlimited. This kind of pisses me off.:mad:

And that kind of bullshit is exactly why I'm still on a Sprint unlimited data plan. Of course, it will just be a matter of time before Sprint pulls this same shit on all of their grandfathered unlimited plan customers. Which will suck for me, since I use my phone for work- downloading schematics and repair documents while out in the field daily. I'm thinking about buying a Note 3 at whatever their price is that allows me to keep unlimited data, but I know that I'd likely end up in exactly the situation you are in within a matter of months, so I'm very hesitant...

Oh, and to each and every corrupted, short-sighted, and greedy oligopolistic cell service company that places their customers last: F&#K YOU!
 
I dumped my VZ unlimited plan because I knew this was only a matter of time. But guess what, I'm back with them now on tiered data. Why? Because I got tired of not being able to stream google play for more than 30 miles outside of city limits. I just took an 800 mile round trip without a single drop on VZ. The worst it ever got was 3g speeds in the boonies. Before that my girlfriend and I would have to pause the start of each song and wait 5 minutes for it to buffer. If we were lucky we could hear an entire album across our journey.
 
I flat-out cannot see how Verizon stays in business. They seem to be the most expensive, and now they're going to throttle too? I don't get the loyalty. I guess I'll open my own abuse shop, treat my customers like cash registers, and tell them they're bad customers for not paying more. Make them feel guilty about paying "so little!"

A lot depends on who has the best coverage where you live and which carrier your friends and family use ... and whether you travel much ... AT&T and Verizon can also offer features or services that their smaller competitors cannot (due to the difference in size)
 
Most of the problem is rampant cronyism and unregulated capitalism happening in this country.

LOL not even close! The problem is that people aren't looking out for themselves, and then some like you complain that regulation isn't looking out for you (because why should you have to look out for yourself?).
 
Well I meet hog criteria I guess usually use between 10-15gig a month. I am in what has to be considered a non high traffic zone though. I guess I'll wait and see how things pan out. VZW is expensive but their coverage and speed are unequalled where I live. I suppose if I lose the speed component it will make me consider a different option.
 
I'm on T-Mobile's unlimited and I don't have this problem ;) Only complaint is I wish they had better coverage in some areas. It blows with Verizon because they know they have best coverage in the US so they can hold that against consumers.
 
I'm on T-Mobile's unlimited and I don't have this problem ;) Only complaint is I wish they had better coverage in some areas. It blows with Verizon because they know they have best coverage in the US so they can use that as a competitive advantage with consumers.

Fixed that for you ... whether you agree with their pricing or not, if they have the best coverage then they should be able to include that in their market pricing :cool:

Ultimately consumers have a choice between the four main providers in most cities ... if they fail to use that choice then that is their issue, not the carriers ;)
 
Fixed that for you ... whether you agree with their pricing or not, if they have the best coverage then they should be able to include that in their market pricing :cool:

Ultimately consumers have a choice between the four main providers in most cities ... if they fail to use that choice then that is their issue, not the carriers ;)

Yeah as I stated above VZW has the best coverage in my area by a long ways. Its the main reason I stay with them. Could I save $$ with TMo? Yes. But what good is money saved when I'm not getting coverage. Having said that there is a balance between price and coverage and now if they're throwing throttling into the mix. Like I said above I'll wait till this begins and see how much I dip down if at all. Central WA is not exactly an urban mecca of 4G LTE data traffic
 
Don't care. The 4G in my area is shit anyway. Just ran a test and I'm getting .80 Mbps.
 
Yeah as I stated above VZW has the best coverage in my area by a long ways. Its the main reason I stay with them. Could I save $$ with TMo? Yes. But what good is money saved when I'm not getting coverage. Having said that there is a balance between price and coverage and now if they're throwing throttling into the mix. Like I said above I'll wait till this begins and see how much I dip down if at all. Central WA is not exactly an urban mecca of 4G LTE data traffic

Verizon is ahead by a good bit yeah but comparing to T-Mo? Ehh... AT&T is way ahead of everyone but Verizon.
 
This is BS. I have an unlimited Verizon plan and I pay for it. I'm not a hog. I use about 9 gigs a month that is all. 30 gigs last month since I used it as a hotspot but that was unusual. I paid full price for my phone so I could keep my unlimited. This kind of pisses me off.:mad:

I'm with you on this. Now that I'm off contract I will sadly have to start looking for a new provider again.

(Not AT&T, they suck here.)
 
Hmm, one has to wonder if lawsuits will entail.

This! I was told I'd get unlimited 4G, not 5GB of 4G and then unlimited (throttled) 3G. This is BS! I want a class action lawsuit, now.

I'm so sick of companies getting away with fucking over their customers, every time, too.


Someone sue these bastards.
 
Well, Sprint FINALLY got good in my area.
So glad I'm still receiving unlimited 4g from them.
Their latency sucks, but since there aren't many Sprint customers here yet and I'm now about a half mile from a data tower, my download speeds hit 5-10mbs where my Time Warner 15mbs package lets me hit 2.
Guess which one I use to download?
I'm going to miss abusing that privilege when Sprint puts a halt to it.
 
Well, Sprint FINALLY got good in my area.
So glad I'm still receiving unlimited 4g from them.
Their latency sucks, but since there aren't many Sprint customers here yet and I'm now about a half mile from a data tower, my download speeds hit 5-10mbs where my Time Warner 15mbs package lets me hit 2.
Guess which one I use to download?
I'm going to miss abusing that privilege when Sprint puts a halt to it.

See, that's the thing, though. It's not "abusing the privilege" when it's unlimited. That's exactly the mindset held by all these keep-getting-richer fuckwads running these companies and why they've instituted these limitations: to force the last of us unlimited users out by frustrating them to no end, thus completely eliminating all remnants of grandfathered unlimited plans and watch the penalty money pour in from the 1-5% of their heaviest users on tiered data plans.
 
Source?

It was regulation that prevented AT&T from absorbing T-Mobile to become a very powerful monopoly.
Kind of hilarious that you would quote AT&T of all companies as an example. Until 1984 AT&T was a regulated monopoly in the US. The FCC even banned competition from the market as it cropped up. Hell, its even on the AT&T website admitting it: http://www.corp.att.com/history/history3.html
For much of its history, AT&T and its Bell System functioned as a legally sanctioned, regulated monopoly.
Finally it got so bad though that anti-trust legislation was passed (the only type of regulation the government SHOULD be focused on, since capitalism can only thrive in a competitive marketplace), and AT&T was broken up.

Cliffs Notes: Regulation bad / Anti-Trust enforcement good... its the difference between a boxing referee breaking up clenches and enforcing basic rules for everyone to play by, versus the referee telling the boxers how they should box or trying to become a boxer himself.
 
Top 5% of data users (you use 4.7GB of data per month or more)

lol then myself and most people that I know and work with are in the top 5% of 4G data users most months... good thing we all left Verizon.
 
With cell signal data caps and possible broadband data caps in the future, I think "cloud" services are going to suffer. Also, people will get sick of cell phone data caps and finally come to their senses and think, why do I need a smartphone, if all I do is use data anyway. All this regulation and data caps are just going to kill the very business that these companies are in. We will be back to like it was 2005, before the iPhone and smartphones became popular, and the cloud meant the things in the sky.
 
Doubt this will have much impact on me, don't think towers around here are congested often. We'll see. Wouldn't get my panties in a twist and start searching for alternatives yet.
 
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