Tomorrow Officially Brings An End To True Unlimited Data For Verizon Customers

DroidModderX

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A little while ago Verizon announced that they would be making some changes to how Grandfathered unlimited data users would be able to use that unlimited data. In the past we have had true unlimited data with no throttling. You could essentially feel free to use up 100GB in one month and Verizon would say nothing and you would use that data at full speed. Verizon has decided to throttle the top 5% of all data users when they are on a congested tower (40% capacity) for up to two billing cycles. You only have to use 4.7 GB of data to be considered in the top 5%. This change is said to be for the purpose of Network Optimization.

Once again not everyone will be throttled. If you are on a tiered/capped data plan you will experience absolutely no throttling even if you are a 20GB subscriber who burns through your 20GBs every month. You will not experience any of the throttling that an unlimited user who uses a mere 4.7GBs a month experiences. In order to be throttled you will need to meet a few requirements. You need to use more than 4.7GBs per month, have an unlimited data plan, be out of contract, be on a cell site that is congested (40% capacity). Otherwise you won't notice any difference.

It should also be noted that if you are being throttled on a particular tower moving to another tower that is not congested would take the throttle off of you, but once you move back to a congested tower you would once more be throttled. Throttling will begin October 1 so you have only one day left. I will be protesting by using as much data as I possibly can for the rest of today and tomorrow!

Via Verizon
 
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Mustang02

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I'd love to see if the new aws tower is congested near work.
 

sst45jeff

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Defiantly sounds like it is a way for Verizon to push everyone off of unlimited data. More of a punishment than a necessity to relieve congestion.
40% is considered a congested tower (really 40%!!!!) and if you are using that tower when it is congested you get throttled for two billing cycles.
Obviously a tower is not going to be at 40% capacity non stop 24/7.
Why not just throttle you when it is congested, if it is not congested than no throttling.
Why should someone who has paid for unlimited data for years now and not had any subsidized phones be considered an expense on the system for using 4.7 gb of data in a month. Kind of a ridiculously low number.

4.7 gb of data is nothing if you stream any movies or tv shows.
Before anyone says I am abusing my data my primary use is
during the winter when we are skiing in our motorhome there is no tv service, so we stream shows at night.
Not that out of the ordinary and I can use 10gb in a month.

I was willing to forgo subsidized phones (saving Verizon money) to keep my unlimited data and now I am be punished because Verizon decided to change there business model and charge more for data.
But it is okay to use more data if I want to pay more.
Sounds Like discrimination to me.
I see a major class action suit coming Verizon's way.

You are unlimited not tiered so you get throttled.

Sound familiar !!!!!!!
 
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Ohyea!

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All good things come to an end. I am not in anyway happy about this, but really isn't much I can do but leave in protest. And that won't be happening, given VZ has the best coverage for the areas I travel.
 

Beardface

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You are unlimited not tiered so you get throttled.
(Edit: staff)

Sound familiar !!!!!!!
Really... you're comparing the business decision of a private organization in handling users that don't have a contract for the use of their services (and thus don't have really any sway whatsoever in what Verizon does) to that of the Jim Crow Laws? Really. You're going to equate yourself to someone who had personal freedoms taken away from him or her by the US government because Verizon is making your phone slow?

Wow.... And you wonder why people aren't taking the complaints seriously.

Look, I'm no fan of Verizon, I think a lot of what they're doing right now, especially in terms of their pricing and tier structures is a pure price gouge and shows signs of a legal cartel with price fixing in collaboration with Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile, but this comparison goes way too far. Nothing will completely unravel a legitimate complaint like comparing it to slavery or the civil rights movement. Your human rights are not being infringed upon because Verizon is slowing down your ability to stream movies at will on their network because they deem you a high volume user.
 
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sst45jeff

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Really... you're comparing the business decision of a private organization in handling users that don't have a contract for the use of their services (and thus don't have really any sway whatsoever in what Verizon does) to that of the Jim Crow Laws? Really. You're going to equate yourself to someone who had personal freedoms taken away from him or her by the US government because Verizon is making your phone slow?

Wow.... And you wonder why people aren't taking the complaints seriously.

Look, I'm no fan of Verizon, I think a lot of what they're doing right now, especially in terms of their pricing and tier structures is a pure price gouge and shows signs of a legal cartel with price fixing in collaboration with Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile, but this comparison goes way too far. Nothing will completely unravel a legitimate complaint like comparing it to slavery or the civil rights movement. Your human rights are not being infringed upon because Verizon is slowing down your ability to stream movies at will on their network because they deem you a high volume user.

No I am not equating myself to anyone.
I did manage to inflame you into responding and stating your opinion which was what I wanted.

What I was pointing out is the similarity of discrimination against a class of people by a business that thinks they can do whatever they want.
As far as a private company, does not matter. I am sure that there were many bus companies that were private, telling classes of people where they could sit, when and if they could even ride the bus. I am also sure that none of those bus riders had a contract.

I signed a contract that obligated me to Verizon for 2 years for an unlimited data plan and I pay for it every month.
Verizon has decided to change that contract at will by placing arbitrary numbers in my opinion to a so called fabricated problem,
(congested cell towers and the 5% of user who use 4.7 gb a month) to as you put it gouge there customers.

Now I will admit I have not read my contract to see if there is a clause in it that says they can change it at will after my two year obligation is completed. But if that is the case than why would they go to all the trouble to just take unlimited data away from users when they make a change to there contract instead of just doing it and being done with it.
Or are unlimited data user's such a small amount it really doesn't matter ?
Why not go after the really big data hogs or does that not really matter either ?

It is just food for thought.
 

cr6

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Regardless of your stance on this issue, unless those of us still on unlimited plans voice our displeasure directly to Verizon, nothing is going to change. Personally I won't, and don't intend on leaving Verizon because of this. Moving to a different carrier is not an option for me, but I can assure you I WILL be writing a number of detailed letters voicing my concerns and will send them to Verizon & the FCC. Too many people complain about these types of issues but never bother doing anything about it, other than complaining on a forum that Verizon could care less about. Sure, my letter may not make a difference, but unless I try (unless WE try) how do we know. Is it better to simply accept defeat, or go down swinging? I prefer the later, and that's what I intend to do. I survived for years streaming music & video via 3G, so I'm sure I'll survive this. But that doesn't mean I have to roll over and take it up the rear after paying full retail for my device less than 4 months ago, so I can keep my unlimited plan intact. I urge you all (still on unlimited) to do the same, unless you simply don't care....in which case good luck to you.

tap'n on my S5
 

blacksoxing

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I did the contract switch-a-roo last year to get my note 3, but sadly, I'm now off contract....

I know that I'm going to get hit up badly by VZ w/the throttling. IN FACT, I went from 20mb to 4mb a few weeks ago!

*I don't even usually go over 5GB...
 

Jonny Kansas

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Regardless of your opinion on the matter, it's business. It's a business decision.

As they stand right now, they make about the same each month off of an unlimited data user as they do those folks (myself included now) that get 2GB a month. So, if you use 10GB a month, you're paying about $3 a GB vs. $15 from someone on a 2GB plan. Doesn't take a genius to see that they're losing out on opportunity. Now, the value of 1GB of data isn't something they'll readily let us in on, just as any company that sells anything doesn't want to tell you how much it costs them to produce/offer that item.

I, also, have not read the fine print in the contract, but I have to assume they're smart enough to word it very carefully. They've been doing this for a while.

Personally, I looked at my usage and made the decision to drop my unlimited plan in order to get the note 4, but only because my usage was within the 2GB limit as far back as I could see from the vzw website. I get almost 50mbps down now thanks to my cable company's recent upgrades, and I haven't run a test on my work network lately, but I'm less data intensive on my phone at work anyway.

Does it suck that, if I was a serious data user, I would have to pay that much more each month by making this switch? Yes, but they made the switch from unlimited data to tiered data quite a long time ago and allowed us all to be grandfathered in.

I don't have the stats in front of me, but we all know how the smartphone market has blown up over the last few years. The same thing that happened with the 3g network is now happening with the 4g network, because all of those people that got their first smartphone before 4g existed are now upgrading to 4g capable devices along with people getting their first smartphone that's 4g (my mother-in-law is in this last group).

Bottom line is, you can write all the letters you want, but vzw is a huge corporation who's done plenty to warn customers that this was coming. Even if they're investigated or end up with class action lawsuit, they'll pay a fine that may or may not result in a couple dollars coming your way, but the damage will already be done.
 

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And just how can we verify if a tower is truly at 40% or not to see if they are playing by their own rules.... We cant....
SO they can just stick it to everyone of us if they want to. Also 40% that sure is a low number to be considered congested.
I live in the country and am not sure how many people have Verizon.... but I am almost positive they have been throttling us for a couple of months now.
All I know is I use to hit 20 MB a second..... now it frequently goes to 1 MB a second or lower.
However the good news is that with my new chromecast.... it parses the data so well it hardly ever interupts when being throttled.
I guess we'll see how bad it gets. I remember when they sold us this data plan.... their line was well we dont want you to have overages so we dont offer a tiered plan.
Now they see the Dollar signs with those overage fees and they want the GREEDY EASY MONEY!!
We have a sprint tower almost in our backyard soooo we may be making a switch.... we'll see!
 
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Jonny Kansas

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And just how can we verify if a tower is truly at 40% or not to see if they are playing by their own rules.... We cant....
SO they can just stick it to everyone of us if they want to. Also 40% that sure is a low number to be considered congested.
I live in the country and am not sure how many people have Verizon.... but I am almost positive they have been throttling us for a couple of months now.
All I know is I use to hit 20 MB a second..... now it frequently goes to 1 MB a second or lower.
However the good news is that with my new chromecast.... it parses the data so well it hardly ever interupts when being throttled.
I guess we'll see how bad it gets. I remember when they sold us this data plan.... their line was well we dont want you to have overages so we dont offer a tiered plan.
Now they see the Dollar signs with those overage fees and they want the GREEDY EASY MONEY!!
We have a sprint tower almost in our backyard soooo we may be making a switch.... we'll see!
Once again, it's business. It's no secret that corporations are out to make money, as much money as they can.

What do you do for home internet?

I guess I just don't see how someone uses THAT much data unless they're on the road a lot or only visit places that don't offer free wifi. It's everywhere these days.

As for the 40%, I'm not really sure how the wireless network bandwidth works, but I know that I've heard for years that, when you buy a PC, once the hard drive gets to 50% full, it starts slowing down. I've witnessed this myself, I'm not sure if it's a similar situation in which they'll throttle those users back to maintain for others, but at the same time, I can see the point of "What happens if all unlimited users jump on a tiered plan and continue to use those same towers?" It'd be really interesting to see what happens if they convince everyone to drop unlimited (also not happening any time soon). Would they then throttle top users by GB? Or by percentage of their data used each month?

Still, business is business. Although I agree that this sucks for that top percentage of users, I have to wonder how many will actually be affected by this.
 

swc2001

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Jonny thanks for your opinion.
Now if anyone does know of a Class action lawsuit, please let me know. Just tell me when and how to sign up.....

A word to the TROLLS: Its my business if I want to take part if there even will be such a lawsuit or if it would even do ANY GOOD. We all have opinions.... this is mine and I can have it if I want to. I really don't owe anyone an explanation for it, or deserve being chastised if I you have a differing opinion.
Thank you!
 

Jonny Kansas

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Jonny thanks for your opinion.
Now if anyone does know of a Class action lawsuit, please let me know. Just tell me when and how to sign up.....

A word to the TROLLS: Its my business if I want to take part if there even will be such a lawsuit or if it would even do ANY GOOD. We all have opinions.... this is mine and I can have it if I want to. I really don't owe anyone an explanation for it, or deserve being chastised if I you have a differing opinion.
Thank you!
I hope you don't think I was chastising you. That was definitely not my intent. Just figure someone should play devil's advocate a little. I enjoy these discussions and, to be honest, regardless of my attempt to rationalize the situation, I'd be pissed too (like I mentioned before) if I used enough data that this affected me.
 

zinethar

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What many people here don't understand is that not everyone lives in or near large cities. Unlimited is worth so much more when you live in the country where no fast internet even exists, except for sometimes a cell phone. Verizon knows this which is why they built out the network to get those people the others could not.

I'm reminded of Volkswagen years ago when gas prices shot up and everyone wanted diesel cars. VW dealers ripped people off selling the cars at huge markups. Once everything evened out those people remembered and now most of those dealers are gone. If you have the best and treat people poorly they remember and although Verizon is now top dog it will likely not last for ever. People will remember (at least I will) and will move to another company as soon as the service gets competitive. Even if the other company (think currently ATT) is also bad. I'd do it just to get even with Verizon. I will not be alone.
 

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Do we need to meet all the requirements or just meet one in order to be throttled? I'm under contract till October of next year with my unlimited plan, kinda hoping that will save me from throttling since I'm most certainly in their top 5% if it only takes 4gb to be considered top 5 as I use about 30-50gb's a month.
 
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