AT&T Throttling Unlimited Users - VZW Next???

[blacksoxing]

Of coarse we are next....VZW see that att is doing it and now they will say...something like...due to the demand of the 4g lte network we have to do blah blah....this will only affect .5% of users........blah blah

the question is....if it only affect .5% of the users...then why bother....

Because those .5% use so much that it messes it up for the rest of us

It's like when a server slows down the special all-you-can-eat mea to a small table because they're just devouring them at such a fast pace that the rest of the paying customers now gotta wait for their first serving.

There's folks who use their phones via tethering as home internet sources. Now, these cell phone companies haven't ever really just charged some kb rate on these guys....but they're the same ones posting screen shots of 80gb used that month while defending themselves as not wanting to pay twice for data.

I personally wished they didn't throttle until like...5GB. But the thing I learned in college...these companies are a business. And they're in business to please the shareholders, who give them money. So, they gotta do what they gotta do...

 

[Kasey923]

I think VZW has already started this. My speeds over the last week or so have gone through the floor. The local store swears they don't throttle, but I mean suddenly my Pandora/Netflix/other streaming apps are completely unusable. (ps guy told me to clear my text messages, that would help. It hasn't)
If they really do it by highest user on a specific tower, I'm boned. I live in an area where there are a lot of older folks and younger people who aren't tech savvy. So I'll probably always be in the top 5% of my tower.

I wonder if I should go see about Sprint...

Lib3rat3d DX

 

[gthotie5]

http://www.businessinsider.com/att-throttling-lawsuit-2012-2

Sent from my GalaxyNexus using DroidForums

 

[Wadman]

I think VZW has already started this. My speeds over the last week or so have gone through the floor. The local store swears they don't throttle, but I mean suddenly my Pandora/Netflix/other streaming apps are completely unusable. (ps guy told me to clear my text messages, that would help. It hasn't)
If they really do it by highest user on a specific tower, I'm boned. I live in an area where there are a lot of older folks and younger people who aren't tech savvy. So I'll probably always be in the top 5% of my tower.

I wonder if I should go see about Sprint...

Lib3rat3d DX

Next time you get the chance to speak with someone from Verizon, ask them about network optimization. The word "throttle" is a bad word in their eyes and they will not call it that. I was noticing that my 3g speeds were significantly slower so I called. They said that the network optimization had been added to my account because I was a heavy data user. I used 4 gigs one month and that was the first month I ever went past 2 gigs. After digging deeper I found out that you have to meet certain criteria to be "optimized." You have to be a consistent heavy user.....which I wasn't....You have to be in a highly congested area....which I wasn't....and there were a couple other things that I again was not guilty of. After talking with about 10 different people it was decided that there was no way to remove the network optimization until the billing cycle ended. I threw a fit because I met none of the criteria and they agreed. I didn't have to pay my bill for that billing cycle and they gave me 50 bucks towards another device....which worked out good because I was due for an upgrade. So they do this...it sucks....but they are already in the process of full fledge throttling..

 

[Lars]

Next time you get the chance to speak with someone from Verizon, ask them about network optimization. The word "throttle" is a bad word in their eyes and they will not call it that. I was noticing that my 3g speeds were significantly slower so I called. They said that the network optimization had been added to my account because I was a heavy data user. I used 4 gigs one month and that was the first month I ever went past 2 gigs. After digging deeper I found out that you have to meet certain criteria to be "optimized." You have to be a consistent heavy user.....which I wasn't....You have to be in a highly congested area....which I wasn't....and there were a couple other things that I again was not guilty of. After talking with about 10 different people it was decided that there was no way to remove the network optimization until the billing cycle ended. I threw a fit because I met none of the criteria and they agreed. I didn't have to pay my bill for that billing cycle and they gave me 50 bucks towards another device....which worked out good because I was due for an upgrade. So they do this...it sucks....but they are already in the process of full fledge throttling..

Being "optimized" is something specific to your account? Lovely. I was under the impression that it was based on your usage for the current month, and if you were a top tier user you would be throttled if the tower was congested. Last month I used an unusually high amount of data. We were having issues with our home internet (Comcast), and I had to use my phone on a number of occasions that normally I would not have. I wasn't in the neighborhood of 5GB, but the last check I recall was just over 3GB of data. Typically I am around 1.5-2.0GB, so I wouldn't think that I am a heavy user, but last month may have switched me to "optimized." Can I simply call, or go to a Verizon store and ask about this, and how difficult do you think it is to have this "title" removed?

 

[Kasey923]

At this point I'm on such a short fuse with Verizon that I don't even want to bother. They take so much of my money every month and then "optimize" my data speeds on my unlimited plan. I've dealt with so many billing issues over the last few years, I can't even remember them all.

Lib3rat3d DX

 

[SquireSCA]

For the past year I have been predicting this... All the people saying that they were grandfathered into Unlimited plans, people saying that they are not in the top 5%, all sorts of excuses as to why it would never happen to them.

I said that it was coming, throttling was about to be rolled out in an effort to push people off of the Unlimited plans and into tiers. Lots of people here and on other forums claimed it would never happen. One person on another forum bragged about how he uses 20G a month with ATT and he was not worried at all about throttling.

Fast forward 4 months and here we are.

The carriers all wanted to sell the higher priced Unlimited plans back in the day when it was unusual for a person to exceed 1GB. Now that everyone has a smart phone and is downloading all sorts of stuff, they see the opportunity to jack up the prices. They are not giving us anything more for our money, in fact every year they charge us more and give us less. This is one of the only industries to do that. Normally, technology comes out and as more people adopt it, prices come down. When 60" 1080P panels came out they were like 5 grand. Now you can buy them at Walmart for $900.

Most electronics are like that. I remember paying $2000 for a Packard Bell PC back in the day, a Pentium 60 with 4MB of RAM and a 540MB hard drive, without a monitor. Today you can get a pretty kickass PC for like $600 with a flat screen LCD.

But cell phones and cell phone plans keep going in the opposite direction. They go to obscene lengths to jack up prices, add redundant fees and charge you for things that you already pay for... It's one of the shadiest industries, possibly worse than banking...

 

[kodiak799]

I thought VZW policy was once you go over a threshold of what the top 5% typically use in a month, you will be throttled for the remainder of the month AND subsequent months until you end-up back under the threshold. So if you used say, 4gigs on Mar 1 you'd be throttled for the rest of March and April....but if your April usage is back down to 2 gigs or so, then starting in May you're account is no longer throttled.

 

[kodiak799]

But cell phones and cell phone plans keep going in the opposite direction. They go to obscene lengths to jack up prices, add redundant fees and charge you for things that you already pay for... It's one of the shadiest industries, possibly worse than banking...

You should take a look at cable plans sometime, which is probably the closest competitor with cell plans.

Hardware prices typically drop, but service plans don't really. I pay more for my home broadband now than I did for phone or DSL access, but obviously it's a lot faster.

 

[TheOldFart]

You should take a look at cable plans sometime, which is probably the closest competitor with cell plans.

Hardware prices typically drop, but service plans don't really. I pay more for my home broadband now than I did for phone or DSL access, but obviously it's a lot faster.

And that's not as bad as cable TV prices. They keep going up every year with no increase in programming value.

 

[nemosfate]

I just don't understand how with every other facet of our lives being competitive and as was mentioned getting cheaper as tech grows how do these few companies keep legally raping the customer... Is it because if the people that don't complain outweigh the people like us that are like Wtf?

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[Xplorer4x4]

Verizon only throttles you while you're on a congested tower, and if you're within the top 5% of the data users on that tower. Once you're on another tower or if the tower isn't congested, you'll be back to normal.

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Yeah sounds like the OP hasnt kept up with news or done research...WE ARE NEXT. Just not to the same degree that ATT is.

 

[kodiak799]

And that's not as bad as cable TV prices. They keep going up every year with no increase in programming value.

Agree for the most part. I think what is happening is more people are using DVR's to skip commercials, so the cable companies are increasing rates to offset the revenue loss (or, perhaps more directly, content providers are charging more to make-up for the lost ad revenue). So, technically, using your DVR to skip commercials IS increased value. They are also offering a lot more channels that most people don't care about.

I've found good deals can be had on cable if you shop around and play hardball with them at times. Most people just sign-up and then do nothing but complain about the rising costs. More competitive markets are definitely cheaper - I saved $50 a month when I moved PLUS I got HBO along with Comcast's awesome XFinity and OnDemand service (don't really even need the DVR). Went through a sales rep and so got a much better deal than I would have signing up directly.

When it comes to mobile data, most people don't realize that the service they are buying just connects them from the tower to the pipes. The mobile operators pay the pipe owners a nominal per subscriber rate (@ $3.30 last I saw). But clearly if the mobile operators removed restrictions and people started replacing their home ISP something would have to give. The cable companies wouldn't watch those subscribers paying $50 a month jump ship and continue to charge just $3+ a month for access to their pipes. Truly unlimited & unrestricted mobile data would have to be priced somewhere closer to $80 a month ($30 + $50).