Verizon claims they shut off my wireless for using "too much" bandwidth at one time.

[miretchin]

I have a rooted original Droid that I have had for two years now; I am due for an upgrade, but I am waiting until Q1 to do so. In the meantime, I am stuck with my original droid, and another original droid, which was once my brother's before he upgraded to a droid 2. On the 19th, my wireless connections abruptly stopped working, such that I could not browse the internet, or make phone calls or text. I rebooted probably eight times, in the vain hope that it would return. Of course it did not, so I figured it must have been a hardware problem. I went to the Verizon store to transfer my service to my brother's old phone. That went smoothly, but I accidentally divulged that I had rooted my old phone. I wanted to determine what was the cause of the wireless failing on my old droid; they told me that VERIZON had terminated my wireless service, thanks to what they call "Network Optimization."

They showed me that Verizon had been keeping track of my wireless service, and that somehow I had superseded the boundaries of my contract, three times, by using "Cyanogenmod to improperly access bandwidth..or something" (I am paraphrasing, of course). This, of course, is something I just haven't done. They also claim that I should have received a letter in the mail describing this as such, but I received no such letter. They said on the third violation as described, Verizon decided to terminate my wireless service. I have checked on Verizon's website, and have found no policy they described to me. It seems to me that the "Network Optimization" they are talking about is described here: Network Optimization, but there is certainly nothing in this that suggests they should terminate my service.

Worryingly, they said Verizon probably detected I was running a third-party ROM, and therefore decided to cut my wireless.

Can someone please help me understand what happened to my droid's wireless service, and whether or not the guys at the Verizon store were correct? Thanks! My inclination is to think they did not know what they were talking about, which in itself is cause for worry, given that I spoke to the manager of the store.

 

[UrbanBounca]

Re: Verizon claims they shut off my wireless for using...

You inclination is probably correct in that they have no idea what they're talking about. However, VZW does reserve the right to terminate your service for "excess data usage," but they've never specified that limit. You are the first person I've seen terminated for excess data, and I've seen people using 50+ GB's /month consecutively.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[Froyo]

This is also the first time I've ever heard of an incident in which they actually terminated somebody's service for excessive usage as well. And like the above poster, I too hear about people doing 50+ gigs, sometimes even twice that, in a single month; claiming not to have even had their speeds reduced.

How much data did you use, exactly? It's hard to imagine you pulling down numbers large enough to be pretty much the first person in history to have VZW terminate their service for excessive data usage, especially when you consider their average 3g download speeds, much of the time less than 1mbps.

If, somehow, you were able to use that much though, it still sounds to me like the guy or whoever you spoke to at VZW may have possibly been right...but for the wrong reasons. Cyanogen Mod, while, technically giving you the added ability to tether, is still not automatically synonmous with tethering. And we all know that while rooting technically will void your warranty, (and only if the VZW person who catches it is a huge dick) it's still perfectly legal, seeing as it's your own damn phone. The fact that he even mentioned Cyanogen Mod or any kind of software modifcation at all, even as only a part of his explanation, indicates he might not have known what he was talking about. If I were you I'd investigate a little deeper, just for sheer principle, if nothing else. The fact that they snoop into our phones so thoroughly that they can see which specific ROM you're using really irks me, to be honest. Not that I, or any of us, didn't already know that they do that...but actually hearing about an employee confirming it really hits a nerve with me.

 

[Natey2]

Re: Verizon claims they shut off my wireless for using "too much" bandwidth

Maybe they are trying to coerce you into their new tiered data plan, where it can get expensive once you exceed the tier you sign up for. Unlimited data is becoming a thing of the past, and many people are not upgrading just to keep their unlimited data plan with Verizon.
I hear AT&T allows you to keep the unlimited data when you renew your contract with them.

 

[debrad0307]

I have a rooted original Droid that I have had for two years now; I am due for an upgrade, but I am waiting until Q1 to do so. In the meantime, I am stuck with my original droid, and another original droid, which was once my brother's before he upgraded to a droid 2. On the 19th, my wireless connections abruptly stopped working, such that I could not browse the internet, or make phone calls or text. I rebooted probably eight times, in the vain hope that it would return. Of course it did not, so I figured it must have been a hardware problem. I went to the Verizon store to transfer my service to my brother's old phone. That went smoothly, but I accidentally divulged that I had rooted my old phone. I wanted to determine what was the cause of the wireless failing on my old droid; they told me that VERIZON had terminated my wireless service, thanks to what they call "Network Optimization."

They showed me that Verizon had been keeping track of my wireless service, and that somehow I had superseded the boundaries of my contract, three times, by using "Cyanogenmod to improperly access bandwidth..or something" (I am paraphrasing, of course). This, of course, is something I just haven't done. They also claim that I should have received a letter in the mail describing this as such, but I received no such letter. They said on the third violation as described, Verizon decided to terminate my wireless service. I have checked on Verizon's website, and have found no policy they described to me. It seems to me that the "Network Optimization" they are talking about is described here: Network Optimization, but there is certainly nothing in this that suggests they should terminate my service.

Worryingly, they said Verizon probably detected I was running a third-party ROM, and therefore decided to cut my wireless.

Can someone please help me understand what happened to my droid's wireless service, and whether or not the guys at the Verizon store were correct? Thanks! My inclination is to think they did not know what they were talking about, which in itself is cause for worry, given that I spoke to the manager of the store.

I work for VZW.. we were told about the policy but I've never seen it carried out. I was told that if the data usage was a high spike and had "spam" like characteristics then they would temporarily terminate service. For instance if there were constant logins to bank websites etc. They do however have to inform you. Unfortunately, the contract does state that VZW has the right to terminate service, where applicable, at any time.

.:Sent from my S3:.