Verizon and AT&T Slow Due To Unlimited Data Plans

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monkeymagick

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In a new report, Verizon and AT&T customers are experiencing slower speeds because of both companies reintroducing new unlimited data plans to compete with T-Mobile and Sprint. According to OpenSignal, there was notable decline between the month of February to August of this year after Verizon and AT&T offered the unlimited plans. T-Mobile and Sprint were not affected in the slightest, in fact both companies actually got a lot faster with T-Mobile speeds surpassing Verizon since the beginning of the year.

Unsurprisingly, unlimited data plans are very popular, as consumers spend more time and complete more activities on their phones. Ericsson expects typical North American smartphone users to blow through 25 GB of data a month in 2022, up from 5 GB in 2016, making unlimited data plans even more appealing.
 
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Deleted member 278999

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monkeymagick said:
In a new report, Verizon and AT&T customers are experiencing slower speeds because of both companies reintroducing new unlimited data plans to compete with T-Mobile and Sprint. According to OpenSignal, there was notable decline between the month of February to August of this year after Verizon and AT&T offered the unlimited plans. T-Mobile and Sprint were not affected in the slightest, in fact both companies actually got a lot faster with T-Mobile speeds surpassing Verizon since the beginning of the year.

Unsurprisingly, unlimited data plans are very popular, as consumers spend more time and complete more activities on their phones. Ericsson expects typical North American smartphone users to blow through 25 Mbps of data a month in 2022, up from 5 Mbps in 2016, making unlimited data plans even more appealing.
Click to expand...

Maybe it had to do with throttling?
 
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WestSidaz

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Atleast now they should have need to update their hardware in poles and put more fiber into land and well.. update everything :D
 
86 5.0L

86 5.0L

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no issues with my AT&T unlimited plan, dont notice slow speeds, and I stream ALOT to my iPhone 6+. It makes no difference that my phone gets 20mbps vs 70mbps. Plex/Netflix/Youtube streams just fine
 
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NKD

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got 56mbps download on lte today at my house. Not so slow here lol! Yea tmobile can rejoice for now, if they are every lucky enough to have as many customers as att and verizon they would suffer some slowdowns too.
 
Tweak42

Tweak42

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monkeymagick said:
Unsurprisingly, unlimited data plans are very popular, as consumers spend more time and complete more activities on their phones. Ericsson expects typical North American smartphone users to blow through 25 Mbps of data a month in 2022, up from 5 Mbps in 2016, making unlimited data plans even more appealing.
Click to expand...

Anyone else annoyed the article mistakenly uses Mbps instead of GB (gigabytes)?
 
K

kju1

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monkeymagick said:
In a new report, Verizon and AT&T customers are experiencing slower speeds because of both companies reintroducing new unlimited data plans to compete with T-Mobile and Sprint. According to OpenSignal, there was notable decline between the month of February to August of this year after Verizon and AT&T offered the unlimited plans. T-Mobile and Sprint were not affected in the slightest, in fact both companies actually got a lot faster with T-Mobile speeds surpassing Verizon since the beginning of the year.

Unsurprisingly, unlimited data plans are very popular, as consumers spend more time and complete more activities on their phones. Ericsson expects typical North American smartphone users to blow through 25 Mbps of data a month in 2022, up from 5 Mbps in 2016, making unlimited data plans even more appealing.
Click to expand...

Correlation does not imply causation. How about AT&T/Verizon are slow because while their network utilization has steadily ticked up they have refused to invest in the necessary infrastructure to keep up with demand...
 
C

csgill75

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I haven't noticed any slow downs, then again my phone service was never fast to start with. In fact this is about the fastest AT&T I've had in a very long time.
 

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Riccochet

Riccochet

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Simply put, they are throttling. I live in the middle of no where corn farm country and have Verizon. They can't tell me my speed has dropped because people are using more data. What people? They're BWM'ing the shit out of people so they can save money on infrastructure upgrades. Why change a flat tire when you can drive on the wheel?
 
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Exavior

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WestSidaz said:
Atleast now they should have need to update their hardware in poles and put more fiber into land and well.. update everything :D
Click to expand...

They won't lay their own fiber but will get connections from others, to which they are already doing. their towers are already either fiber feed or uses microwaves to a tower that is.
 
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likeman

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as long as they proveide 10mb reliable i would not care much (UK here so does not affect me , unless i cant get real 4g(LTE) then 3g is norm to congested to stream video)
 
D

Deleted member 93354

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monkeymagick said:
Unsurprisingly, unlimited data plans are very popular, as consumers spend more time and complete more activities on their phones. Ericsson expects typical North American smartphone users to blow through 25 Mbps of data a month in 2022, up from 5 Mbps in 2016, making unlimited data plans even more appealing.
Click to expand...

Mb = megabits = total amount of data
MBps = megabits per second = data rate

Minor nitpick. :) (I make mistakes before my 2nd cup of coffee to)
 
C

conscript

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Verizon hasn't made a major investment into their infrastructure in over 5 years. T-Mobile is doing it annually...was only a matter of time. If I wasn't so lazy to go through the number transfer i'd switch from Verizon to tmobile today.
 
T4rd

T4rd

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Damn, they're already prepping to kill unlimited data plans again when they're not even truly unlimited this time, lol.

I still have a data-only line on Verizon on their old unlimited data plan (no throttling ever, but they're threatening to drop you past 200GBs) for hotspot only while we're away from home on trips. But with T-Mo's rapid expansion and binge-on for unlimited streaming on most services, I think I'm about to drop it now and save the $60/month. I'm seeing band 12 on T-Mo deployed across my state (KY), so they're reaching out a lot further into remote areas they had trouble with before. I'd say they have about 95% of the coverage Verizon has now in the areas I frequent.
 
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dj_spanmaster

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I find it telling that we've mentioned "upgrade" and "update" at least twice in here, and there wasn't a single mention of it in the article. Verizon has had years to increase the capacity of their network to match their rolling out of the unlimited plans, and they have chosen not to do so. Instead they are throttling everyone in order to sell a high priced package, and pinning the blame on the package instead of accepting responsibility of their choice.
 
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Spaceninja

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T-Mobile doesn't work where I live, at least not reliably. If they ever expand out here then I will probably switch from AT&T, but right now it is really the only carrier that works in my area. I had Verizon and Sprint for a bit and they were just downright unusable.
 
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ScottSummers79

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As a T-Mobile subscriber who just switched in June from Verizon, I'm slower on T-Mobile on the same phone than I was on Verizon. Add in the part where I never lacked service with Verizon and do somewhat often with T-Mobile (though not nearly as bad as when I tried them 4 years ago), I'm not sure it would matter anyway. What's the point of super high speed if there's no signal when I want to use it? I have strong signal outside (e.g. when driving), but as soon as I walk inside (and am able to actually use the phone), I've got nothing. I'm trying to be patient and wait for their low frequency stuff to hit and be active, but it's going to be hard. I don't pay this much money to anyone to not have service when I expect it.
 
grtitan

grtitan

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rsquared said:
As a Google Fi user, which piggybacks on T-Mobile and Sprint, this is good news.
Click to expand...
As a new Fi client, I really wish that they cut the price of those data buckets.

I'm pretty sure that data is a lot cheaper since Fi launched.
 
scojer

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ScottSummers79 said:
As a T-Mobile subscriber who just switched in June from Verizon, I'm slower on T-Mobile on the same phone than I was on Verizon. Add in the part where I never lacked service with Verizon and do somewhat often with T-Mobile (though not nearly as bad as when I tried them 4 years ago), I'm not sure it would matter anyway. What's the point of super high speed if there's no signal when I want to use it? I have strong signal outside (e.g. when driving), but as soon as I walk inside (and am able to actually use the phone), I've got nothing. I'm trying to be patient and wait for their low frequency stuff to hit and be active, but it's going to be hard. I don't pay this much money to anyone to not have service when I expect it.
Click to expand...

If you're using the SAME Verizon phone, that is your first problem. Verizon = CDMA T-Mobile = GSM
Also, try to get a coverage device from T-Mobile. They have 3 different kinds, two require home internet, one does not. If you ask them to waive the $25 deposit, 9/10 times they do.
 
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nightfly

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There's no reason for them to spend money on upgrading their infrastructure. After all, most of their customers are idiots who believe whatever commercials tell them. We've seen recently just how many Americans don't bother to check the facts on what they see and hear on TV. So, that explains why Verizon puts so much money into advertisements, instead of improving their product. After all, it's worked for microsoft for decades. Lie, promise great things, then make excuses when actually unable to deliver what you promise. After all, this is America; it's all about the money. Nothing else. Just money. And as long as they can fool their customers, that's all that is needed. The executives of Verizon (and all the others who rip off their customers) are laughing all the way to the bank. Look forward to more of the same, as your elected officials do their best to dismantle consumer protection here.
 
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nutzo

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I'm still fine with my 2GB plan on T-Mobile.
I'm usually on WiFi at work/home, so the only time I even get close to using the 2GB is when I take a long vacation.
I'd rather save the extra $10/phone/month.
 
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Biznatch

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I do like how VZ killed my grandfathered unlimited plan a couples years back using the exact same excuse (Plus wanting to charge me the same price for a 2GB bucket of data).... Dropped them immediately and went to Tmobile.

Now they brought it back for a much higher cost to compete with tmobile/sprint, and are crying about it again.... Sprint/tmobile sure seem to be doing ok with it.
 
boss99

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I have VZW and my wifal unit noticed that her internet speed on 4g isn't as zippy as it was when we had a 6GB plan.
 
D

Deleted whining member 223597

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scojer said:
If you're using the SAME Verizon phone, that is your first problem. Verizon = CDMA T-Mobile = GSM
Also, try to get a coverage device from T-Mobile. They have 3 different kinds, two require home internet, one does not. If you ask them to waive the $25 deposit, 9/10 times they do.
Click to expand...

LTE is GSM, hence why Verizon phones have SIM cards. Any good phone will work on more than one carrier, especially the Verizon ones. Then again I only have experience with iPhones which have basically all the LTE bands you will ever need.
 
J

JNavy89GT

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My verizon has sucked for the past 6-8 months. complained about it. Everything blamed but network congestion. My phone, my location etc.... Bull$shit answers given to a known problem
 
MavericK

MavericK

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Huh, weird...maybe they should have spent all that profit they made gouging customers for years on infrastructure?
 
scojer

scojer

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-Strelok- said:
LTE is GSM, hence why Verizon phones have SIM cards. Any good phone will work on more than one carrier, especially the Verizon ones. Then again I only have experience with iPhones which have basically all the LTE bands you will ever need.
Click to expand...

The iPhone 7 is different, the 6s and 6s plus were the last ones to have ALL the bands. The 7 was designed more specifically for their respective networks.
 
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