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Verizon Wireless Confirms Plans to Throttle Heaviest Users

Article Comments  74  

Feb 3, 2011, 11:33 AM   by Eric M. Zeman

Verizon Wireless spokesperson Jeffrey Nelson confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that the company is planning to throttle the wireless data speeds of the heaviest 5% of users. The policy applies to new customers signing new contracts, and will only be enforced when users are affecting the experience of other nearby Verizon Wireless customers. Verizon said it is taking this step so that it may protect its network. The policy will cover anyone signing up for the iPhone 4, though Nelson said the two events aren't related. "This is clearly something we've been looking at for some time and introducing now," he said. "There's nothing magic about the timing." Verizon Wireless and Apple began accepting pre-orders for the iPhone 4 earlier today. The new policy, which was first unearthed by documents posted to VerizonWireless.com, goes into effect today. Verizon didn't say how drastically speeds would be reduced.

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MadFatMan

Feb 3, 2011, 11:28 PM

Queation for VZW, Do You Hate Your Customers?

1st of all you invested your network development dollars into LTE, seriously? It's unstable and delivers an inconsistent end user experience and for capped/metered/tiered data plans it going to be a nightmare for the end user.

Now this, "throttle the users" seriously just how close can you say that you are going to "choke the crap" out of your customers without actually saying it?

I swear if your executives thought to put alcoholic chain smoking bi polar monkeys that threw their own poop at existing customers as they walked into the store to your corporate retail stores. I'd think you would go for it as that idea is on the same level as throttleing your customers.

Come Feb 10 your network is going to be placed under its maximum de...
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I am waiting for VZW to answer you.
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Well if i read that post correctly it says that this is for new customers not current ones. But i could be wrong just saying
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RTF Announcement. Throttling will ONLY happen to new customers or customers who upgrade AFTER Feb 3rd. If you're currently under contract you're fine. Furthermore, this throttling will ONLY occur to the top 5% of smartphone users, and only during p...
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rofl@madfatman. dude, you're really on a roll with this data thing. menno is definitely not a top secret vzw employee...i see his posts on this site quite a bit. i don't think anyone from verizon is gonna see your little rant man, chill out.
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Awww, Mr. Datahogman is gonna be throttled! Booohoooooo. 10GB then a push back to slower speeds.

Maybe you should slow down on downloading pr0n on Bittorrent on your phone so much. Then you won't push that 10GB threshold so easy. Seriously, unless ...
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DiamondPro

Feb 3, 2011, 2:16 PM

Whats a nice way to say this...

Verizon sucks! They are throttling and compressing data. This just shows how limited verizons resources are they have to slow your service for months so they can keep up wtf! 👿
Throttling isn't as bad as crafty hard disconnects like Comcast does.

T-Mobile does the same thing, and they have you less data (5GB instead of 10) before capping it.

VZW is apparently only doing this if the tower is saturated with bandwidth, so...
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"This has been a test of the Emergency Cellular Service alert system. If you regularly consume more than 10 GB per month of cellular data, please report to your nearest Sprint Wireless retail location for activation on an unlimited account immediatel...
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Streamed data on your phone is compressed to optimize it for mobile presentation. You can see this if you access your programming menu on your device and check for the media streaming proxy.

Clear (wimax) will also throttle heavy usage data.
Theuninformed

Feb 4, 2011, 12:56 PM

Really?

People are very narrow minded. An unlimited data package, defined, is that at no point will you be charged additional amounts of money to continue using the service that you enjoy. Period.

People cannot expect a wireless phone industry (in the long haul), to be capable of providing the kind of consistency and reliability that a wired home service can provide.

Additionally, even companies like Comcast have a high usage clause. They don't just slow you down, they terminate your service. So let's weigh your options.

You're a new customer to the IPhone. Your choices are Verizon Wireless or AT&T.

AT&T - Reputation for dropped calls, consistency scores lower than Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile in the customer service department, and onl...
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Here is what most of you are missing in the big picture. 1) Why in the world would you ever buy an iphone 4 when the 5 comes out in july. Great idea for apple, bad deal for the vzw fans. 2) As we speak vzw, att, sprint, and tmobile are all coming up w...
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That makes too much sense. Prepare to be attacked mercilessly. Just a word to the wise.
Azeron

Feb 3, 2011, 12:16 PM

I'm Ready To Be Throttled

Doesn't that just sound kinky? Wooha! Throttle me honey! Take it! Take it! *Sigh* Ah! I need a cigarette.

Seriously. 16Gigs last month... 13Gigs this month. I am prepared. I have been GETTING OVER and I'm proud of it.
And I thought my 3.69 GB last month was a lot...
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All I have to say is these wireless bills cost a real, real lot of
$$$, so get your $'s worth!!!
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AndroidRules

Feb 3, 2011, 5:40 PM

The network is going to hell

You can't even get over 1mbps on Verizon's EVDO now and the iPhone's haven't been activated yet. SMH!!!!

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/02/verizon-iphone-re ... »
AndroidRules said:
You can't even get over 1mbps on Verizon's EVDO now and the iPhone's haven't been activated yet. SMH!!!!

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/02/verizon-iphone-re ... »
Yep. And CR is now saying that ...
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Well, for starters, 1/2 the speed tests showing there did exceed 1 Mbps.

Beyond that, Verizon's 3G network has never consistently pulled over 1 Mbps. EVDO just can't do it.

They're getting the same speeds that VZW has been advertising since t...
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That depends on area. Down near philly, I get consistant 2.2+ speeds. In my town I get consistant 1.7/

But yes, EVDO will NEVER get faster (on average) speeds than a HSPA+ network. That's what LTE/Wimax is for.
VZW611LA

Feb 3, 2011, 1:25 PM

Throttled Back IF

You go over 10GB.

Verizon is being fair about this. Keeping unlimited and just throttling is better the capping and charging.

If you go over you get pushed back to RevO.

This is only for people who sign up for the 29.99 unlimited data plan today.
unlimited is unlimited. Idon't see 10 GB in my definition of unlimited.



Anyway enjoy iphpone hell!
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cellgeek82

Feb 3, 2011, 1:23 PM

Speed change

So, throttled speed will feel more like 1x (2G) right? I've had Verizon before and their speed isn't something to brag about as it is. Throttled speed would suck! I thought Verizon was ready for the iPhone but every day a new defense pops up. Are they worried?

At least they have unlimited...for now.
They are keeping unlimited and if you go over 10GB you get pushed to EVDO Rev0.
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cellgeek82 said:
I thought Verizon was ready for the iPhone but every day a new defense pops up. Are they worried?

At least they have unlimited...for now.

They're worried about profit, just like every other corpora...
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No. It will feel like Rev 0.
I'm sorry but if they are throttling, even if only the top 5%, and only in limited circumstances, doesn't that pretty much by definition mean that they don't have a TRULY unlimited plan?

Of course, that there is no such thing as truly 'unlimited' b...
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Menno

Feb 3, 2011, 12:03 PM

A couple extra details

According to that leaked PDF, the throttling will ONLY be for customers signing up for data after today.

This means that it DOESN'T constitute a "Material change" to your contract that will let you out of your contract without an ETF.

They also don't have to change their advertising from "unlimited" since it's not a hard cap.


That being said, if they throttle AFTER they introduce caps, there will be problems.
Post-cap throttling might reduce the data usage, though. That could reduce the overage costs.
 
 
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