Verizon Reserving Right to Throttle Data Speeds for Top 5% of Users

[Dr Mac]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8B117)

I'll just stick with my unlimited data on AT&T. Verizon is once again showing their true colors by the punitive nature of this policy. As a consumer, I gladly take my vote ($$) elsewhere.

 

[GFLPraxis]

But even you yourself said you are not crossing 5 gigs of wireless data. If you cross 5 gigs of data over the cellarer network you are on the abuser side. Wifi to me does not count against that abuse.

Yes, but they did not say 5 gigs of data.

I think 5 gigs of data is the upper 0.5%, not the upper 5%.

I think at 2-3 gigs, I probably use more than 95% of users on the AT&T network, most of whom only look up the occasional video and their email, and are on a wifi network most of the time.

 

[Chase R]

Throttling the top 5% - fine by me.

"Optimizing" (aka compressing/shrinking) images and video - Noooooo.

 

[cameronjpu]

No, in my analogy the rental company is NOT paying for gas. The rental company is offering Unlimited mileage rental car. Meaning you can drive as many miles as you want for no additional per mile fee compared to other rental car companies limited mileage restrictions.

Also, in my state, car poll lanes aren't in existence.

CAN WE ALL PLEASE STOP WITH THE ***STUPID*** ANALOGIES?

We all understand what throttling means without CONFUSING the issue by adding a layer of complexity, a NECESSARILY imperfect (and usually, as in this case, CRAPPY) metaphor?

 

[cameronjpu]

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Watch how this clause has NO IMPACT on sales. If it was really that bad, people need to speak with their wallets rather than their mouths.

But like so many things in life, this too will pass with a collective groan before the public willingly takes another one up the a$$.

Yeah because guess what? Most people KNOW they couldn't possibly be in the top 5% of users and most people WANT those hogs to be made to at the very least pay their fair share rather than abusing everyone else for their porn streaming habits.

 

[cameronjpu]

So if I watch Netflix on my phone I am abusing the system? I'm glad you are not in charge.

Yeah, if you watch 10 movies a month on a cell phone over a cell phone network, because you are spitting on your neighbor who will have worse service as a result.

 

[cameronjpu]

why would you choose to stream it this way other than to prove a point that you could do it? you'll get a better stream going through cable modem or even DSL

He's doing it that way to save the $40 per month home internet fee and let his neighbor's pay the negative externality caused as a result.

 

[quetzalcoatl]

Oh yeah, it's worked out great so far. Let's take a look:

Verizon crippled the iPhone and took away:

• Fast network access
• voice and data multitasking
• decent international coverage
• rollover minutes
• free wifi at the 'popular' chains

Verizon added:

• unprecedented, unpredictable, unwarranted data throttling
• compression of my data (pictures) which will ruin their resolution
• higher prices points

Oh yes....this is a great customer experience!

The free wifi is there for everyone it is just run by ATT
Barnes and Noble free
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/Wi-fi-at-Barnes-and-Noble/379001240/
Starbuck free
http://www.starbucks.com/coffeehouse/wireless-internet
McD free
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/services/free_wifi.html

 

[cameronjpu]

The throttling doesn't seem like that big a deal to me, I doubt the vast majority of users will ever notice this.

However, I thinkt he idea that they will be compressing data behind the scenes without your knowledge is ridiculous, and needs to be spelled out much more clearly. If I send someone an image file as an attachment, I expect them to receive the EXACT same file that I send them. Likewise for anything else. Same goes for files I receive, whether that's on a web page, via email, file transfer, what have you.

And they will. THINK for a second. Verizon cannot decrypt your email any more than any other person listening on the line can. It's an encrypted email from you to the recipient, there's no risk of Verizon modifying that email in any way.

 

[ChrisA]

There are smarter ways to do this. One of them might be

If the "pipe" is full and data is backed up in a queue then count how many packets each user has gotten in the past minute and move packets going to low volume user to the front of the queue. This will make small web pages load fast for everyone while pushing big downloads to the background.

Lots of other things like this.

 

[splashnader]

I am not surprised. This is usually what companies are forced to do when they have unlimited data plans. As someone else already pointed out, bandwidth is never limited. Verizon is no different from any other company, like Comcast, that have seen their networks suffer failure and severe slowdown due to heavy data traffic.

 

[dsut4392]

I haven't seen it asked, but didn't read the entire 11 pages of posts:

VZW don't appear to say over what period the "top 5%" is calculated.

Top 5% of users for the last month? For the last week? For the last day? For the last hour? For the last 5 minutes? 'Instantaneous' transfer rate?

If you're going to effectively manage the network, you need to manage according to traffic NOW, not traffic over the last month...

If I downloaded movies all night long and became top .001% of data users, throttling my speed at peak periods would make zippo difference to network capacity if I wasn't a big user at peak.

At any given time, what % of users are simply browsing static pages (or using no "data" at all) vs the % that are downloading a reasonable size file or watching video?

e.g. at peak network time, are 80% of phones idle in the owner's pocket, 15% making voice calls, and the remaining 5% who are doing anything over port 80 are de-facto the "top 5% of data users" at that point, therefore everyone using data gets throttled?

 

[miamialley]

Do you guys realize how much data you'd have to use to be in the top 5%?! I mean, I'd like to see what that usage looks like. I'm perfectly fine with this. People can stream their porn or Netflix on their computers and keep my speeds fast(er).

 

[Zero!sOne]

Do you guys realize how much data you'd have to use to be in the top 5%?! I mean, I'd like to see what that usage looks like. I'm perfectly fine with this. People can stream their porn or Netflix on their computers and keep my speeds fast(er).

http://www.crn.com/news/client-devi...ke-at-t-iphone-users-in-wireless-data-use.htm

Over 4 percent of Verizon Wireless smartphone customers consume more than 2 GBs per month. . .

And that was from July of last year. I can't imagine the numbers have gone (or will go) down since then. 2GB is not that much if you choose to watch a TV episode here and there when you're out of WiFi area. Personally, I'd rather pay an extra $10 for a month of overage than to have my data slowed down for up to two consecutive months.

 

[miamialley]

Yes, but they did not say 5 gigs of data.

I think 5 gigs of data is the upper 0.5%, not the upper 5%.

I think at 2-3 gigs, I probably use more than 95% of users on the AT&T network, most of whom only look up the occasional video and their email, and are on a wifi network most of the time.

What do you do to use that much data? I never go over 400MB and I use my phone constantly for all kinds of purposes.

 

[quetzalcoatl]

Do you guys realize how much data you'd have to use to be in the top 5%?! I mean, I'd like to see what that usage looks like. I'm perfectly fine with this. People can stream their porn or Netflix on their computers and keep my speeds fast(er).

The laest reports come from July.
http://www.crn.com/news/client-devi...;jsessionid=H8W-ns6F6nOcofgr+RdLvQ**.ecappj02
Depending on how much it has gone up it is not near as much as you might think. But I would say 3GB is a safe number to assume right now.

 

[lazyrighteye]

99% of your posts over the last 8+ months are bashing Verizon. Give it a rest.

Give it a rest?
Seriously?
What, 8 whole months from one forum member bashing the do-no-wrong Verizon already gotten under your skin?
Do you work for Verizon?
Did AT&T run over your cat?

After 4.5 years of "AT&T sucks" and/or "this wouldn't happen if iPhone was on Verizon" posts - even in non AT&T/iPhone threads - I'm finding it incredibly entertaining how quickly the Verizon apologists are cropping up.

You, sir/madam, put the F in fun. Thank you.

 

[cameronjpu]

http://www.crn.com/news/client-devi...ke-at-t-iphone-users-in-wireless-data-use.htm



And that was from July of last year. I can't imagine the numbers have gone (or will go) down since then. 2GB is not that much if you choose to watch a TV episode here and there when you're out of WiFi area. Personally, I'd rather pay an extra $10 for a month of overage than to have my data slowed down for up to two consecutive months.

Unfortunately when the crazed frantic complaints over the elimination of unlimited bandwidth happen, you tend to convince companies that instead of having above board limits on usage, above which you can pay for more (a perfectly reasonable way to handle a limited resource), they should be sneakier and make it harder to tell if you are part of the group that will be limited.

If you were someone who complained about the elimination of unlimited plans on ATT and eventually on VZ (and everywhere else), you have no one to blame but yourself.

 

[bearbear]

Give it a rest?
Seriously?
What, 8 whole months from one forum member bashing the do-no-wrong Verizon already gotten under your skin?
Do you work for Verizon?
Did AT&T run over your cat?

After 4.5 years of "AT&T sucks" and/or "this wouldn't happen if iPhone was on Verizon" posts - even in non AT&T/iPhone threads - I'm finding it incredibly entertaining how quickly the Verizon apologists are cropping up.

You, sir/madam, put the F in fun. Thank you.

I've had my iPhone for years now and ATT is great for me. It must be shocking to people like you that one can have ATT and yet don't feel the need to go out of my away to attack vzw in every single thread.

That said, it's a little shady when the sole purpose of one account is to attack Verizon is all I'm saying.

 

[macsrcool1234]

I won't mind if AT&T throttles top 5% of users too.

+ 1. AT&T needs to relentlessly throttle those using outrageous amounts of bandwidth by tethering without paying for it.

 

[Sinfire]

And people thought that the grass would be greener on the other side of the fence. Verizon is doing the same thing when I was their customer 5 years ago. Sure they may have better quality ( not that I have a lot of issues with AT&T ), but with slower speeds and now bandwidth throttling.

 

[revelated]

It says they "MAY" throttle. Doesn't mean they "WILL".

"MAY" = "WILL" in legal jargon.

 

[Mr Fusion]

Yeah because guess what? Most people KNOW they couldn't possibly be in the top 5% of users and most people WANT those hogs to be made to at the very least pay their fair share rather than abusing everyone else for their porn streaming habits.

Yeah, just wait until there's reports that over half of all Verizon iPhone users are "in the top 5%" of data usage. Who determines what the top 5% really means? How can you keep such a practice in check?

Will Verizon put out a list of users who use too much data? Or a generic graph of usage and claim "you're in the top 5%"? I'd think privacy laws prevent that first option. You know what I'd say to the latter?

Prove it.

This policy is a slippery slope that'll only amount to more time on hold with customer service to battle frivolous charges. Have fun with that...

 

[zorinlynx]

WHY are people bitching so much about this? Verizon is just implementing congestion management. Lots of ISPs do this; for instance Comcast mentioned doing it a while back.

Without congestion management, the network gets slow for EVERYONE. The idea is to slow down heavy users a bit so that everyone can get a piece of the pie. If you're using Google Maps to try to find your way, do you really want it to load slowly or not at all because the network is congested?

With congestion management, everyone gets a piece of the pie and the network remains fast and responsive. GET OVER IT. It's a lot better than being charged data overages!

 

[dave420]

Yeah, if you watch 10 movies a month on a cell phone over a cell phone network, because you are spitting on your neighbor who will have worse service as a result.

My AT&T wireless bill this month for my family plan is $300. How many movies am I allowed to watch before I am abusing the system? I am using the service that they are selling to me.