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eric87m
join:2003-12-07
Washington, DC

eric87m

Member

How unlimited is unlimited these days?

I've been on a 4G unlimited plan for the better part of 3 years now. My average monthly use is normally very light, around 1gb a month.

However, I've recently had a falling out with my home ISP, Comcast, and in an obscenity-laden fit of rage, I've disconnected all Comcast services.

For internet at home I've now been using Wi-Fi tethering to my home PC via my Verizon cell phone (iPhone 5c). After about 15 days of use I've used about 8gb of data. So I expect to be around 15-20gb monthly at this rate.

I've heard in the past Verizon has throttled heavy users on their "unlimited" plan. Is this still the case? At what point does the throttling take place?

Also note that my unlimited plan is actually in a business account (Nationwide for Business). Our monthly bill is usually around 40 grand so that may give me some leverage with customer service if throttling becomes a major issue?

Backondabloc
@myvzw.com

Backondabloc

Anon

Sorry, I don't have an answer for you, if you will. I'm still with the unlimited data plan. What is throttle? Should I be concerned? If so, what do I look for & how will it effect me? Thanks
tomas67
join:2006-10-14
Villa Park, IL

tomas67 to eric87m

Member

to eric87m
Last month I put 97 gigs and did not seem to be throttled because I want to ditch comcast also.
pioneer56
join:2008-03-21
Michigan

pioneer56 to eric87m

Member

to eric87m
Band 13 or 14 non-AWS is not throttled on Verizon. I don't know if they can or will throttle Band 4 LTE. 3G can and is throttled in certain situations also.

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
·Charter
Ubee EU2251
Ubiquiti UAP-IW-HD
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-HD

Smith6612 to eric87m

MVM

to eric87m
I have an unlimited plan on my phone and use anywhere from 4GB to 20GB each month. As far as throttling is concerned, nothing on band 13, or band 14 LTE as pointed out above. On 3G, I find that my phone is throttled under two conditions. First, I must have used 3GB or more of data in a billing cycle, and two, in a single 3G data session (basically from hopping on 3G to when I move back to LTE, or go to Wi-Fi for a while) I must have transferred more than 20MB. The throttled speeds are 128kbps downstream and 60kbps upstream once both of these are met.
eric87m
join:2003-12-07
Washington, DC

1 edit

eric87m

Member

Ok thanks for the info all. I get excellent speeds on the 5C, so that must mean it's on band 13?





Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY

Smith6612

MVM

Likely band 14. At least in my own experience, Band 13 seems to be a bit slower. More devices I assume are using that. Newer devices, like my S3 tend to lean towards Band 14 a bit more.
brad152
join:2006-07-27
Chicago, IL

brad152 to eric87m

Member

to eric87m
If you have the old $30 tethering add-on then you'll be fine with only 15-20GB of usage.
eric87m
join:2003-12-07
Washington, DC

eric87m

Member

Well if tomas67 is really pulling nearly 100 gigs, then I might go crazy with a little Netflix action

15-20GB was me being careful, I can easily plow through way more if there's no repercussions
CooperJensen
join:2014-04-04

CooperJensen to eric87m

Member

to eric87m
Agreed if it's really unlimited I might start making the most of it
pioneer56
join:2008-03-21
Michigan

pioneer56 to eric87m

Member

to eric87m
said by eric87m:

Ok thanks for the info all. I get excellent speeds on the 5C, so that must mean it's on band 13?

With those speeds it almost certainly is AWS Band 4 which is still unthrottled so far.
Here is a Band 14 speed from the home tower:

tomas67
join:2006-10-14
Villa Park, IL

tomas67 to eric87m

Member

to eric87m
Go for it!
tomas67

tomas67

Member

I gave up cc here is my latest speed test
»stage.results.speedtest. ··· 0344.png
ke4pym
Premium Member
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC

ke4pym to eric87m

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to eric87m
I used 6GB this month. 4 last month.

C6 Z06
join:2002-07-17
Lubbock, TX

C6 Z06 to eric87m

Member

to eric87m
I've been using a Droid Razer 4G phone for all my internet needs since 2012 on Verizon. I have the grandfathered unlimited internet for $20 . I love Verizon!! Right now my download speed is 24 mb/s down and 4 mb/s up.

Rage and Comcast go hand in hand. Comcast Business had committed to a free installation ($200+ value) if I committed to a 1 year term. Well, after the install they charged me that $200 in a surprise bill. I spent massive amounts of time on the phone which included working with the district manager and they didn't follow through. $%$%^& Comcast. I didn't pay those m$$%%& a f#$$%& dime. And I never will go back since I intentionally set myself up to have a large bill if I ever want to

In regards to unlimited internet, I have not hit a cap ever (3 years usage). I have used 65 GB so far this month.
The unlimited is true in a sense of caps, but I don't do bit torrent stuff. The limitations as you likely already know are with the cell towers. If you get a lot of people using the tower you are on, the internet will slow down.

When I traveled the USA from Seattle to Madison over a few months developing a navigation app in my Chevy Volt, I ran into a bandwidth issue in Boulder, CO. A tracert.exe test showed hops taking in excess of 3000 (50-300 is normal) and my speed was 2kb/s. I broke down and called Verizon support. They did fix the problem and the steps were to power down the phone, remove the SIM card, insert the SIM card, boot and let the cell tower detection process run (a few minutes). After that the internet was fast. I've had that happen a few times since then so now I periodically do that out of maintenance to prevent slowness.

Another issue I hit was my phone kept running out of juice when downloading for hours on end. The fix for that is to supply more juice than the wall wart power adapter or USB port in my computer provides. I'm using the same juice that the iPad power supply uses (and same as iPad USB cigarette adapter).

aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
Asus RT-AX89

aaronwt to Smith6612

Premium Member

to Smith6612
said by Smith6612:

I have an unlimited plan on my phone and use anywhere from 4GB to 20GB each month. As far as throttling is concerned, nothing on band 13, or band 14 LTE as pointed out above. On 3G, I find that my phone is throttled under two conditions. First, I must have used 3GB or more of data in a billing cycle, and two, in a single 3G data session (basically from hopping on 3G to when I move back to LTE, or go to Wi-Fi for a while) I must have transferred more than 20MB. The throttled speeds are 128kbps downstream and 60kbps upstream once both of these are met.

Maybe this is why whenever I have any PAndora and Amazon music streaming issues, it's when the phone has switched over to 3G? This would explain it since the Pandora stream is 192kbps I think. And my Amazon streams are 256kbps and higher. Fortunately it doesn't happen very often.

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY

Smith6612

MVM

Quite possibly. When my phone isn't being throttled on 3G and I have a decent signal, I can usually stream 720p YouTube on the 3G network. Otherwise, stuff like Pandora more than flies. Once I hit some sort of threshold, it seems to get quite poor.
eric87m
join:2003-12-07
Washington, DC

eric87m to tomas67

Member

to tomas67
Thanks for all the info guys. I used about 80 gigs a month the last 2 months with absolutely no problems. This speeds via this cell phone is absolutely incredible. BF4 had a 20 gig patch and Titan Fall is a 50 gig download!

C6 Z06
join:2002-07-17
Lubbock, TX

C6 Z06

Member

Wow, big downloads right there. BF4. What is that?

I hit 102 GB a couple months ago.