Throttling! Coming soon to a VM (USA) phone near you

[Jimbo droid]

Say goodbie to netflix say goodbie to downloading games and updating them wake up people 2.gb is nothing. Virgins network was dog slow already this will only further cripple there network.

 

[KinichAjaw]

Here's the email I received.

Hi Mr.LongPipe,

A Change to Your Virgin Mobile Service

Here at Virgin Mobile, our mission is to deliver an outstanding customer experience. Sometimes that
means making difficult choices in order to provide the best possible service to the greatest number of customers.

To make sure we can keep offering our Beyond Talk Plans at such great prices, we're putting a data speed reduction in place for anyone who uses over 2.5GB of data in a month.

How will it work?
Starting March 23, 2012, if you use over 2.5GB of data in a month on your Beyond Talk Plan:
Data speeds may be reduced to 256Kbps or below for the rest of your month. During this time,
you may experience slower page loads and file downloads and lags in streaming media.
If data speeds are reduced, they will return to normal as soon as your next plan month starts.
If you'd rather not wait for your new month to start, you can restart your plan immediately through
My Account.

Will it affect me?
Based on your activity for your last plan month ending in December, you shouldn't be affected.

If you continue to use the same amount of data as you did in your last plan month, you should not see
your data speeds reduced. Just to give you an idea, in order to hit 2.5GB, it's about 400,000 Mobile
Internet page views, about 90,000(!) emails (without attachments), 91 hours of streaming music
or 20 hours of video clips*.

This will not affect your ability to text or make calls with your phone.

How will I know if my data speeds have been reduced?
If you reach 2.5GB of data in a month, you will receive a text message letting you know your data speeds
will be reduced for the rest of your plan month.

By putting this data speed reduction in place, we're making sure we can deliver the same quality service
you've come to expect from Virgin Mobile. We hope you understand.

Thank you.
Virgin Mobile

The tension of waiting for this message is KILLING ME!!! ARGH!
....OK, not really.
I'm not particularly happy with this, but considering every other company except Sprint already did this I'm not terribly surprised, especially since most other prepaids have had this implemented longer.
Though as was mentioned, if these stats are accurate I should be fine.
Still no message though. Waiting, waiting, waiting.......

 

[marc12868]

The tension of waiting for this message is KILLING ME!!! ARGH!
....OK, not really.
I'm not particularly happy with this, but considering every other company except Sprint already did this I'm not terribly surprised, especially since most other prepaids have had this implemented longer.
Though as was mentioned, if these stats are accurate I should be fine.
Still no message though. Waiting, waiting, waiting.......

IKR... I'm still waiting more an email or a text or anything...

 

[MacFett]

Virgin has now joined the suck group. The only good thing they had was the unlimited internet wich was 3g slow and now capped at 2.5 gb wich is nothing 3 movies. Well time to cancel and go back to tmobiles 5gb prepaid plan.

Thanks, this will free up some data bandwith for the rest of us!

 

[Skratte]

Is VM sending emails to all or just the one's going over the cap?

 

[benslgdroid]

I never got one

 

[melim]

Haven't gotten one, either.

 

[Atma]

Me either. I fell left out.

Or maybe they forgot me and I won't get throttled.

 

[sharpe351]

I am not too concerned with this, seeing that I monitor my data usage and rarely ever go above the "2 gig" limit. I really don't see a need for them to throttle data, as it isn't really costing them much, but it does choke the system down a bit. My service has never been phenominal, but it seems to work fine when I need it.

 

[Skratte]

Interesting. I received an email. Funny thing is, I'm on wireless probably 95% of the day, home and work.
So wondering how I could go over on data?

 

[Palafox]

I got 32k down this afternoon. now THAT sucks

sorry about ur speeds, we have VM to thank for dumping android phones during BF, now data usage is overloaded, they cant keep up with all the phones... THANKS VIRGIN MOBILE

I wouldnt doubt VM users are low priority when it comes to sharing Sprint's 3G data.

 

[tlopez1973]

I received a message today by text 1-24-12 regarding the throttle cap 2.5 gab is more than enough for me

mt-triumph-cm7

 

[Jimbo droid]

Thanks, this will free up some data bandwith for the rest of us!

Hope you enjoy the capping

 

[MacFett]

Hope you enjoy the capping

I pay $25 a month and use 200-500 megs. When I had At&t I used to pay $80 a month for that much data and had 0 minutes or texts. I'll do just fine.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

 

[El Presidente]

Hope you enjoy the capping

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Come on peeps, play nicely .

 

[Petrah]

Hope you enjoy the capping

From VM:
"in order to hit 2.5GB, it's about 400,000 Mobile Internet page views, about 90,000(!) emails (without attachments), 91 hours of streaming music or 20 hours of video clips"

If anyone is coming anywhere near that much, then they need to use a PC and legally connect to an ISP. Mobile Carriers are not the same as an ISP. This is one of the reasons some mobile carriers are placing these restrictions... because people treat them like they were an ISP.

 

[cammykool]

i got the email of death today

and personiailly i dont mind the cap you all hav to remember its sprint virgin abd boost all on one network XSOMETING had to give and virgin was the first to go with 35$ plans

 

[nightspd]

I just got this message from VM: Your Behond Talk plan is about to change. Starting 3/23/12, data speeds may be reduced once you hit 2.5GB. For more info, click http://msg4u.us/th2

What, The, Hell. Anyone else get this?

 

[melim]

Haven't gotten one, either.

Quoting myself to say that I did indeed get the text today. They must be doing them in batches, 'cause I know I don't come anywhere near the cap.

 

[melim]

There are two threads about this already in the VM forum. Report your post so a mod can move it in there.

 

[fightingirish]

Just got the same message. I must be an abuser.

 

[Virginmobileguy]

To make sure we can keep offering our
Beyond Talk Plans at such great prices,
we're putting a data speed reduction in
place for anyone who uses over 2.5GB
of data in a month.
Will it affect me?
Based on your activity for your last plan
month ending in December, you could
be affected by this change.
If you continue to use the same amount
of data as you did in your last plan
month, you may see your data speeds
reduced during a plan month when the
data speed reduction is implemented on
March 23, 2012. You can still use your
phone to do everything you currently
do, but you may experience slower
page loads and file downloads and lags
in streaming media.
This will not affect your ability to text or
make calls with your phone.
How will it work?
Starting March 23, 2012, if you use over
2.5GB of data in a month on your
Beyond Talk Plan:

 

[benslgdroid]

Quoting myself to say that I did indeed get the text today. They must be doing them in batches, 'cause I know I don't come anywhere near the cap.

Got mine today as well

 

[idbl_fanatic]

To make sure we can keep offering our
Beyond Talk Plans at such great prices,
we're putting a data speed reduction in
place for anyone who uses over 2.5GB
of data in a month.
Will it affect me?
Based on your activity for your last plan
month ending in December, you could
be affected by this change.
If you continue to use the same amount
of data as you did in your last plan
month, you may see your data speeds
reduced during a plan month when the
data speed reduction is implemented on
March 23, 2012. You can still use your
phone to do everything you currently
do, but you may experience slower
page loads and file downloads and lags
in streaming media.
This will not affect your ability to text or
make calls with your phone.
How will it work?
Starting March 23, 2012, if you use over
2.5GB of data in a month on your
Beyond Talk Plan:

 

[marc12868]

Why is every so surprised? They've been talking about this for a while, they were gonna start throttling in October, 2011, but put it off til this year. Just use less data and if your using it to tether then that's probably why you are using so much data.