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

The beginning of the end.

If you contract for unlimited data and at a certain speed thresholds (I suppose within reason) thats what you should get. I am sure they have very good lawyers working on very deceptive and clever verbiage on there newest contracts to deal with this.

So iPhone users get hit the first and the hardest.
 
thecypher said:
This is exactly why at&t got rid of the unlimited plan and went to tiers. They learnt their lesson. Verizon is playing the game. "Unlimited" wink wink ;-) isn't exactly unlimited.
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I just wish they would leave an unlimited plan and also add speed requirements. Then give tethering for free. That way, you pay for your tier (both data consumption and data rate) and you can use it any way you want. Who cares if you are on the unlimited 1mb/s rate using tethering; that's your choice. It may not be "fun" but it would work. I wouldn't mind going this way for me, I would like tethering, but I don't need super fast speed -- mostly emails. But for those who want FAST speed, maybe they can justify 1GB/Month and thus pay for that tier.

Damn it, give me more options. But I guess the average user is clueless about this and thus would be more confused.
 
Their network, their right to throttle. If you can stand back and be reasonable, who will the complainers be for the most part about this? The abusers becuase it affects them. 90% of either carrier would have no idea about this what so ever. What is abuse is a very subjective at the very least. However the iPhone/Android is not truly meant to take over as a computer. Do we use it that way, yes, becuase we are techies and push the envelope everyday.

This whole Throttle the top 5% has nothing to do with the iPhone. I could see this coming a mile away. reagardless of which carrier. AT&T has just approached it differently in that they have data caps. Beleive me Verizon will as well, then those they classify as abusers will pay for the service they are using.

I like Verizon and yes I think they charge too much for what they provide. However it is their network not mine, and thye can charge what thye want. Funny how many are makign this into a AT&T vs Verizon thing. It's a What telecoms think they can get awy with vs the cosumer... Who care which carrier you are on? Which ever you find works for you, or whom you consider lesser than two evils.

I for one will sit back and get a HTC Thunderbolt with LTE and the ability to do voice and data over 3G.. yes 3G.
 
lol wow

it funny how the iphone came and wrecked the cellular industry.
I mean seriously no one saw this type of usage coming before the iphone was made and now BOOM! scrambling. Apple has the ability to highlight other companies lack of future-proofing their respective industries.

before you say android this and android that.... apple invented android's opportunity for low risk success.

i hope that other companies take note of apple's paranoia of becoming obsolete being their drive to innovate with present day tech to drive future industries.
 
topmounter said:
Uhhh, no. I said iPhone users are typically IN the top 5% of data users... I didn't say they used more or less data than Android users.

Regardless, it is no coincidence that they are announcing this just as they're about to launch the iPhone w/ WAP tethering capability.

I certainly can't blame them for proactively trying to avoid the problems that plagued AT&T rather than just relying on the myth that has been propagated over the last few years that their network could easily have handled the iPhone's data traffic.
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I apologize. I did miss that nuance on IN ;)

But I think they CAN handle the traffic. Some people just don't like the way they choose to handle it. Between the massive capacity being added and proper network management, I suspect the smartphone users on VZW will appreciate the care VZW is taking to maintain their reputation.
 
thecypher said:
I agree. I think the throttling issue may not be such a big deal. The compression is going to affect everyone across the board and that is a bigger problem in my opinion. I upload images and video to MobileMe, Flickr etc. from my iPhone to share or backup. I would hate for them to be compressed by the carrier. Perhaps they only compress images and videos going from one cellular customer to another in which case the compression may not be apparent on the small screen?
Click to expand...

As long as it is lossless compression, who cares? In this case, the destination data is the same as the source; just during transmission it is compressed. Most things can be compressed quite a bit (although videos and images can't too much).

If it is lossy compression; that would suck.
 
Canceled

I was going to switch over to Verizon because of the better coverage in my area, but this made me decide not to. I don't want anything "optimized for my device" or "optimized for the Verizon network". Can you imagine pinching to zoom on a certain detail of an image on a site and see blocky artifacts? If I want to view a 1.9 MB image, I expect the original content from the server, not a compressed-on-the-fly rendition.

No thanks, V.

EDIT: Also - how long is this optimization going to take before Verizon sends the data to my device? What if I'm viewing a page with 79 images? Is Verizon going to "optimize" all of these images and delay transmission by 10 seconds? 3 seconds?
 
thecypher said:
You are forgetting the part where when the top 5% get pissed off and leave the ones who were in the 90-95% now become the top 5% and so on.... :D
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Once the top 5% are gone, there is no need for throttling anymore. And I very much doubt that the go exactly by some percentage mark, but throttling will happen when their network reaches its capacity limits. If suddenly _everybody_ would try to download 50 GB per month then 100% of users would be throttled. They will be throttled anyway, even without any policy, because the network just couldn't handle it.

You should use some common sense and think about the purpose of throttling: Each customer produces a certain amount of revenue, and each customer produces a certain amount of cost. As long as you as a customer produce less cost than revenue, you will be fine. There is no purpose in throttling your access because they lose money if you leave. If you reach the range where you cost more than you pay, they will want you to leave.
 
CylonGlitch said:
I just wish they would leave an unlimited plan and also add speed requirements. Then give tethering for free. That way, you pay for your tier (both data consumption and data rate) and you can use it any way you want. Who cares if you are on the unlimited 1mb/s rate using tethering; that's your choice. It may not be "fun" but it would work. I wouldn't mind going this way for me, I would like tethering, but I don't need super fast speed -- mostly emails. But for those who want FAST speed, maybe they can justify 1GB/Month and thus pay for that tier.

Damn it, give me more options. But I guess the average user is clueless about this and thus would be more confused.
Click to expand...

You are right. It is probably just more confusing for the average consumer. The bottomline is that majority of consumers who have been using blackberries or other smart phones (can't speak for Android I have never used one) will be thrilled to death when they lay their hands on an iPhone and will be very happy with it. If they can make reliable phone calls and access the internet when they want to they will be happy. I don't think lower data speeds will probably bother them as much since the experience will still be a lot better overall than what they have been used to on other smart phones. When people start Netflix streaming and other high bandwidth usage applications is when they will probably start noticing slow downs or stalls. For existing iPhone customers on at&t however switching to Verizon may or may not be a better experience. Time will tell. No simultaneous data and voice is definitely a deal breaker for me.
 
CrystalPepsi said:
I was going to switch over to Verizon because of the better coverage in my area, but this made me decide not to. I don't want anything "optimized for my device" or "optimized for the Verizon network". Can you imagine pinching to zoom on a certain detail of an image on a site and see blocky artifacts? If I want to view a 1.9 MB image, I expect the original content from the server, not a compressed-on-the-fly rendition.

No thanks, V.

EDIT: Also - how long is this optimization going to take before Verizon sends the data to my device? What if I'm viewing a page with 79 images? Is Verizon going to "optimize" all of these images and delay transmission by 10 seconds? 3 seconds?
Click to expand...

wow. I think you maybe reading too much in to this. This is direct response to data abusers. You will not be affected as an average user. Optimaisation is a broad action. By throttling the service of the 5% the network runs better, hence network optimisation
 
NKT said:
Ummm, no. Android users use more data than iPhone users.

So this could impact them more.

But someone brought up a good point. It says they "MAY" throttle. Doesn't mean they "WILL". And if you're in that top 5% then you're using way more resources than the other 95% and should be throttled any ways. It's not like there's unlimited spectrum and VZW has a network reputation to defend.
Click to expand...

depends on which statistic you believe - in reality it is probably not too much of a difference, just makes better headline if the data is getting teaked in one or the other way.
 
Full of Win said:
"slow ass data network" vs. 1/5 the amount of 3G coverage while using AT&T

"no talk and surf" vs. ~3X as many dropped calls and voice less coverage while on AT&T
Click to expand...

1/5 coverage = not really a problem in the cities unless you live out on the countryside.

3x as many dropped calls = widely exaggerated. dropped calls are very rare.
 
I is Mac said:
1/5 coverage = not really a problem in the cities unless you live out on the countryside.

3x as many dropped calls = widely exaggerated. dropped calls are very rare.
Click to expand...

so every review that came out last night LIED about dropping calls? Conspiracy... :rolleyes:
 
CylonGlitch said:
As long as it is lossless compression, who cares? In this case, the destination data is the same as the source; just during transmission it is compressed. Most things can be compressed quite a bit (although videos and images can't too much).

If it is lossy compression; that would suck.
Click to expand...

All compression of images, video, music by definition is lossy. The formats we use like jpeg, mpeg are already highly compressed and the only way to compress them further is to reduce quality (resolution, bit-rate etc.).
 
Kinda nice business strategy to oversell it's service and then, while receiving full monthly payments from custumers, limit that oversold service even more.
 
It's simple to get into my Android device and activate wireless tethering, no jailbreak or root required. All it is is a simple setting, and Verizon never knows. I'm sure this is in place to target those who tether.

It's pretty hard to get over 5GB of usage using your phone as intended. Not impossible, but not easy. I'm sure the vast majority of the top 5% of data users are tethering.

I would like Verizon to set a concrete number and let us know at what point throttling begins. However, I'd prefer throttling to the alternative which is a low 2GB cap with overage fees. Personally I'd rather a slower internet instead of overage charges.
 
Seems somewhat reasonable to me, though I don't think I like the sound of the next month being included as well in the throttling.

But I know that this will regulate the overall network and ensure that Verizon maintains the quality coverage and speeds that they have.
 
Cabbit said:
So how do we know that it is only the top 5% and not the top 50% or indeed everyone?
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And what determines the "top 5%"? Is it ascertained per market? So if I'm in a small town and even though I don't use much data, I'm in the top 5% for that area -- do I get throttled?
 
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