Use an appreciable amount of data? Not for long, you won't!

[shadowdude777]

Well, for those of us like me who wanted to stay on a 3G plan to keep our unlimited, looks like that course of action has been ruined:

Verizon can now throttle top five percent of bandwidth hogs, downres multimedia transfers -- Engadget

Yep, that's right. Top 5% of all bandwidth users will be throttled for that month that they're currently in AND the following month of their plan. Well, chalk that up as one more reason Sprint's looking so damn good right now. Oh, and look at that, I'm done with my contract too!

 

[asphalt cowboy]

But if you already have unlimited, then they can't take it away, right?

 

[xmr405o]

But if you already have unlimited, then they can't take it away, right?

They are not taking away unlimited data but they are basically going to reduce your data speeds. Which really sucks because if you stream music or video, which is very common with smartphone users, then you can end up with choppy vids. Big Red is getting a Big Head.

 

[shadowdude777]

Exactly. You may not have a hard limit of 2GB like AT&T smartphone users now have to deal with, but Verizon's imposing a restriction of, let's say 2GB arbitrarily, on the top 5% of their data users, by making their speeds slow so they CAN'T use much more data. Personally, I think I'm going to call and complain about this. You can't just impose new restrictions on people already under contract!

 

[YankeeDudeL]

Very generic numbers that they need to classify. Are the saying 5% of users will get slowed down and ONLY those 5%? Or are the saying anyone using over a certain (and as of yet unspecified) amount of data will be slowed down. Almost undoubtedly, the latter, I'm sure. But they're not saying if you habitually go over that limit that you'll incur this "penalty" (my word, not there's), or if one time is enough.

I use anywhere from 1-3gb a month.

 

[johnlgalt]

Agreed, yankee. The wording is simply too vague at this point. Plus, I'm also in the 1-3 GB range - I use Pandora HQ almost daily, and that alone eats bandwidth when I am on the road....

 

[NiceGuysFinishLast]

If you read the article closely, it states that if you are selected to be throttled, it will be for the current billing period, and the one immediately following.

 

[xmr405o]

It's weird, that top 5% can change on a monthly basis. So VZW's criteria on who to throttle can change on a month to month basis depending on each person's data usage. I know this is never going to happen but let's say for a given month the highest data usage was 2 gb for every smartphone users, that means the people who uses 2gb (which I think is not even close to a high usage amount) will still get throttled?!?!

 

[skipcooney]

How do I look up how much data I use in a billing period?

 

[twistedlim]

Makes Project Elites Uncapped Data Hack seem pretty attractive if it works. I personally don't use enough to ever hit the top 5% anyway.

 

[Lock-N-Load]

IF your somehow in the top 5% of data users, and think about that given the number of users they have, you are not using "an appreciable amount" of data, your a data hog!

I have no problem with them throttling back on the mere 5% of users who hog the data. No problem at all.

 

[Lock-N-Load]

It's weird, that top 5% can change on a monthly basis. So VZW's criteria on who to throttle can change on a month to month basis depending on each person's data usage. I know this is never going to happen but let's say for a given month the highest data usage was 2 gb for every smartphone users, that means the people who uses 2gb (which I think is not even close to a high usage amount) will still get throttled?!?!

thats never going to happen. The top 5% they are talking about are going to be people using in the +10-15 gb users. 2gb is never going to be a threshold.

How do I look up how much data I use in a billing period?

login to your account online and check your usage. I check mine in Verizon monthly to get an idea of my usage..

 

[cwcheese]

login to your account online and check your usage. I check mine in Verizon monthly to get an idea of my usage..

or install My Verizon Mobile app to view current details anytime.

 

[gallandof]

i use on average about 25g a month of 3g data (i download most of my roms and stuff via 3g, and have pandora or some games running too, tethering to download torrents while on the road) im pretty sure i fall into that top5% but all that means to me is that im going to have to connect to wifi more (i never have the patience to put in the wifi codes since i Go through a rom or two a day)

 

[Lock-N-Load]

or install My Verizon Mobile app to view current details anytime.

I use that, but not everyone has VZW, so I did not mention that

 

[Lock-N-Load]

i use on average about 25g

damn

if I were to guess, yeah, I would say your one of "those"

 

[xmr405o]

thats never going to happen. The top 5% they are talking about are going to be people using in the +10-15 gb users. 2gb is never going to be a threshold.



login to your account online and check your usage. I check mine in Verizon monthly to get an idea of my usage..

Yeah I know, that's highly unlikely but since VZW didn't specify a minimum threshold it leaves it open to their own discretion. Which to me is kinda fishy.

 

[xmr405o]

i use on average about 25g a month of 3g data (i download most of my roms and stuff via 3g, and have pandora or some games running too, tethering to download torrents while on the road) im pretty sure i fall into that top5% but all that means to me is that im going to have to connect to wifi more (i never have the patience to put in the wifi codes since i Go through a rom or two a day)

Well you just helped out the curve haha. 25g, geeeezus!
Lol...so you have the patience to wait for a longer download times using 3g then inputting wifi codes on your phone? You are lazy man! haha jk

 

[takeshi]

Yeah I know, that's highly unlikely but since VZW didn't specify a minimum threshold it leaves it open to their own discretion.

Right. I'm not sure why people are fishing numbers out of thin air. The Verizon memo says "top 5%". It does not mention a fixed number of GB.

Exactly. You may not have a hard limit of 2GB like AT&T smartphone users now have to deal with, but Verizon's imposing a restriction of, let's say 2GB arbitrarily, on the top 5% of their data users, by making their speeds slow so they CAN'T use much more data. Personally, I think I'm going to call and complain about this. You can't just impose new restrictions on people already under contract!

I suspect they'll just cite their TOS, claiming that the top 5% adversely affect other customers (whether they actually do or not).

 

[bamaredwingsfan]

Im thinking this will be more of a ploy to drive people from 3G to 4G phones

 

[shadowdude777]

Yeah, and I'm betting that on 4G, instead of this soft limit, there'll be an actual ~5-10GB hard limit. This is probably going to be a sufficient amount for me but having a limit always makes me so nervous that I end up overly restraining myself from doing things with my phone.

@twistedlim: What is this uncapped data hack you speak of?

 

[breadnatty08]

i use on average about 25g a month of 3g data (i download most of my roms and stuff via 3g, and have pandora or some games running too, tethering to download torrents while on the road) im pretty sure i fall into that top5% but all that means to me is that im going to have to connect to wifi more (i never have the patience to put in the wifi codes since i Go through a rom or two a day)

Aren't your WiFi passwords saved through your Gmail account? I've never had to reenter mine as long as I have data saved through Gmail.

 

[solo65impala]

It says so far that I've used 8gb this month, which I have downloaded a crapload of stuff on 3G (roms, etc). So I think I'll be alright, but I dare them to throttle me back....

 

[corbinator]

Im thinking this will be more of a ploy to drive people from 3G to 4G phones

Well that and to put a stop on all us getting the free tethering. VZ is still trying to get you to buy one of their adapters and get another $30 a month out of people.

 

[GirLuvsDroid]

Aren't your WiFi passwords saved through your Gmail account? I've never had to reenter mine as long as I have data saved through Gmail.

And if they don't get restored by Google, using Titanium Backup you can get them back by restoring the green item "Wi-Fi Access Points."