Verizon Tells Us New Throttling Isn't Implemented Yet

At least they are throttling, instead of imposing bandwidth caps.

Cue the "I'd rather have high speed and pay enormous overages than not use my new 4G device to its fullest due to throttling".

Seriously you'd rather pay $10 per GB? So you really want to pay $30 for the Netflix movie you streamed?

This can't resize any content that is DRMed since they can't decrypt it to get to the original bits. Netflix is DRMed.

Since they are not re-encoding H.264 (YouTube), this would mainly seem to effect older WM9 content and that new codec that Google wants the world to use.

Lol. Sarcasm fail.

I think all would agree the biggest selling point for Verizon is the reliability and general performance of their nationwide network. Taking that as a given then if you take their response at face value and in good faith, (admittedly a leap of faith), then their current stance makes sense.

Not "To early to tell" or even "Two early to tell"...

To, too, two...
There, their, they're...

Most screwed up words on the internets....

I don't like this punitive treating of customers... Throttle for one cycle, not two... Way to chase the customers away...
Of course, this is better than usage caps. It just seems that these companies push just to the point of pissing people off...

Fixed, thanks. Was just writing too fast and the editorial interns are napping.

Karl, it happens on the "main stream" sites all the time and every day. DSLReports.com is doing better than most...

We do alright considering I'm one guy in a padded room.

You do a fine job, this is a great site.

Sure does happen alot

I do believe a throttling system such as the one implemented by Comcast to address heavy users in congested areas of the network is more consumer friendly than throttling a customer for two billing cycles. But the question is how consumer friendly is VZW going to be?

This could be a fair system, but they've already started off on the wrong foot by stating that they could throttle for the rest of the "offending" cycle and an extra one after that... Just because they can and they should teach you a lesson. I have no problems with throttling; however, stuff happens. People have busy lives, and they may go over here and there. Meh, there have to be people around to think of the worst that can happen and inform others...

But their writeup did say that you wouldn't be throttled all the time for that cycle and a half. You will only be eligible to be throttled on cell towers experiencing congestion. Sounds like you get to be 1st in line to be throttled when that need arises at specific locations and not everywhere and all the time for that cycle and a half.

Ah, the sting is a little less potent stated that way. Ugh, I guess we'll see... Thanks for the heads up on that...

Verizon really, REALLY likes your money. Just trust that they will do the right thing.

By the way, perfect image for this post.

Is this just a clever way for them to change the terms of the contract at a later date, and prevent their users from claiming there was a substantial change to the contract to try to get out of it?

Can they be trying to say "We reserve the right to make any changes we want, at any point in time, AND, because we told you we might do this you are just screwed."

Creative.

No, more appropriately, "Verizon Wireless reserves the right to actively manage its network, at any point in time that is necessary, for any new customers, and existing customers with newly negotiated contracts after the 3rd of February, 2011."

To be fair ALL carriers and ISPs say they have a right to manage the network. Unfortunately most are not very specific with defining the trigger points.

And VZW's response to Karl can lead one to believe that such definition may come about if/when such active management is implemented.

I don't have a problem with this at all.. I have a feeling they'll be totally responsible.. What would be awful is a 2GB cap..

The iPhone on VZW could be really great for them.. however they could screw it up badly if they screw around with this.. I'm sure they know that.

Despite me being okay with this.. if it changes my contract and I can get out of it.. I'll get out of it just for the sake of getting out of it... because that's just how I am..

It depends on what they throttle down to and at what byte count it starts. If 1Mbps, no problem, if 100Kbps, there will be a lot of complaints. Good decision for VZW to throttle instead of capping, but it depends on what the final conditions are.

Anyone know what Tmob throttles down to after 5GB?

ATT has hard caps with surcharges and so far, Sprint doesn't throttle phone users (though Clear does for Clear users).

Seems Sprint is the only true unlimited player left so far with $10 extra fee. Even with the fee, plans are still less than ATT/VZW and no meter watching.

Exactly. Now.. who get's 1MBPS with VZW anyway? :P I think it's a great network.. there's service everywhere but the trade off is, it's pretty slow. I can live with it though.

Having AT&T for almost 2 years, I hated it... Constantly end up in an area with NO service what so ever. I've literally never had that happen with my VZW phones.

As you mentioned, if the throttles are reasonable and hell, if the triggers are reasonable too (someone using their phone to download gigbytes of porn) then I really want mind this..

I've been throttled every day for years now. This just allows Tech Support to tell you your throttled and the network isn't overloaded.

T-Mobile is supposed to throttle to EDGE speeds, but nobody on the internet has posted that they got throttled, from what I've read.

Isnt the cap like 5 or 10 gigs?

     On T-Mobile, yes.  I think it's 5GB.

Oooh i have... A few times. They drop you down to around 50kbps down. In my area/on my devices, i can change the apn and i go back to normal. I've been using my dell mini netbook w/tmo built in as a primary computer since august.

I see.

How does one do that?

What is the APN?

Are you talking about T-Mobile?

Friend of mine got throttled by T-Mobile. He was using his phone as his only Internet solution. The company sent him a letter or a phone text.

Throttle her in the mornin, throttle her in the evening, throttle her all day long....ok, maybe not her....but throttle it is. Appears Verizon isn't taking the stance and penalizing ALL the users for a few bad seeds...err heavy users like Comc**p did
- btw, not I am not a heavy user

we have not determined the break over point of how many customers we are willing to loose and keep profits up. we want to scare away poeple who will actually use our so claimed great speed and screw over grandma because she is scared to move away from us..

in todays world and/or what they are going to try and head for...at some point

Verizon will probably make the throttling number decently high and eventually move it down

I wouldn't be shocked to see people who use Netflix/Hulu or others to be hurt by this after just a few movies

I would rather them just tell us not to use their network.. Being the bandwidth is soo precious they have to charge 60 a month for 5 gigs.. With ten a gig for overages.. What kinda crap is that.

Let people use your network without fear of being beaten down for simply enjoying a netflix video over your network.. Spark innovation, not repress it..

I strongly disagree with the premise that Verizon HASN'T been using data throttling until now. I have owned a USB727 3G wireless data card for about three years now, and I'm less than 2 miles from my nearest Verizon cell tower. I enjoy the luxury of a very strong cellular signal (-55 dbm) and my data rate is a steady 1200-1500kbs during non-peak hours. (and as high as 1500-1800kbps about 10% of the time) I even have a cellular antenna to stabilize and boost my cards signal. Signal strength fluctuation is a non-issue in my case. During the early evening (5 PM), until later that night (10 PM), I'm lucky if my data rate exceeds 800kbps. HALF THE PREVIOUS DATA SPEED. Most of the time, I can't get above 500kbps no matter what. Not only that, but it remains that low for that entire time span. It NEVER exceeds 800kbps under any circumstances. (regardless of how many speed tests I run) The 'normal' speeds simply do no return until after 10PM. I can repeat these tests every night of the week without exception...and the results are all within about 10%. They are limiting my data access speeds, pure and simple. I'm not a happy camper. But Verizon won't own up to it. I called their tech support hotline to complain, and they flat out deny that they are manipulating my data speeds at all. They claim it just "high network traffic" or "network congestion". I call BS on that, because network traffic fluctuates. My data speeds are essentially FIXED (or capped) at less than 800kbps no matter what. There is no way they are consistently slow for 5-6 hours STRAIGHT (7 days a week) between 5-10 PM. And then they 'magically' return to normal speeds after about 10PM every night. NO WAY. Network traffic varies minute to minute and hour to hour. Network traffic or congestion does not (and cannot) impose a FIXED load on any particular cellular system unabated for six hours straight. That's impossible, especially in LOW POPULATION AREA LIKE MINE. Even an area with high network traffic would have 'holes', where your data speeds would fluctuate near normal levels. In my case, there is no let up whatsoever. It's insulting that Verizon would try to use the pathetic network congestion excuse, to explain what I have been carefully tracking for almost 8 months now. They ARE using data throttling, and I firmly believe they have been for some time now. (putting there laughable denials aside)

I don't question that you may be absolutely right about this.

But there is throttling and then there is throttling.

Yes, as Xenophon pointed out above, the evidence is not yet clear that Sprint throttles its 4G customers (and I'm in a very congested urban area (midtown NYC) and, with the exception of two mysterious hours, one two days ago and one in mid-January (speeds dropped from 9mbps to around 3.5 mbps), I've seen nothing that might have been throttling at all since November), but the evidence is quite clear that Clear throttles its 4G customers. Now, the minimum spec on the Sprint/Clearwire WiMax is 3 mbps, and the Clear throttle appears to run as low as .5mbps or 500k, clearly BELOW the spec promised by Clear. That is why Clear's throttling is, at the very least, unethical and probably actionable.

On the other hand, Verizon Wireless clearly specifies that its lowest average speed for its 3G is 600k. So if you're averaging 800k during "throttling", then you may be absolutely right that they're throttling and lying about it. But if that's the throttle speed, you really don't have a beef. Your beef is with the Verizon Wireless 3G spec, and they told you what that is going in. Of course, if your throttled speed consistently runs BELOW 600k, then you DO have a legitimate beef, and should start asking for partial credit on your bill, like I did in 09 for two months when Sprint was screwing me over on the upload side.

To tell you the truth, I've already told Sprint's CEO or CFO (not sure of his title), Hesse, who encourages emails from his subscribers, that I would cheerfully accept a 6mbps download throttle if he could raise the upload cap from the current 1mbps to 5mbps. That's the sort of throttle I could live with.

There's throttling and then there's throttling.

Deleted

Funny thing is I don't have a data plan on my 2 phones we only message and I don't care to incur the cost. I have cable internet at home through Brighthouse with no caps (at least that I know about). Like most folks, I have a router set up and connect over wifi at the house with a wired connection to my desktop. We connect our ipods, game systems, roku and laptop also on the router. Pretty mainstream suburban dull set up.

I would definitely consider cutting the cord completely and adding a data only wireless cell connection at the house and getting a dish for TV if the cell companies did not have the stupid cap policy and they could provide a internet connection that was as good as cable or Uverse/Fios. So see folks like me would LOVE to add data service by cutting the wire. Folks like me though will continue to sit on the sidelines till they can make a valid business case for me to jump onto the cell bandwagon. Caps are not the way to do that.

Chris,

You are preaching to the choir my friend.

The low data caps have made my move from a 3G wireless data card (with an old 'grandfathered' unlimited data plan) to a 4G wireless data card (with a 5GB capped data plan) completely impractical.

On average, I use 25-30 GB of data per billing cycle. 5GB of data would be consumed in the first week. (or even sooner)

My wireless data connect card is my primary conduit to the internet. This is due to several ongoing research projects that I conduct at the same time. (home and work combined)

Without my 3G unlimited wireless data plan, the overage fees would wipe me out. (from a financial standpoint)

I do not have a cable modem or DSL in my home. (yet)

But, I plan to get one or the other very soon. (in a few weeks)

One other thing...

It's important to understand a basic fundamental truth in regards to wireless 3G or 4G data cards:

The signal strength and data throughput speeds can vary greatly.

It's not just about network traffic either. The very NATURE of a wireless (incoming signal) is dependant on three things:

1) Location
2) Location
3) Location

Not only the distance between you and your nearest cell tower important, but the physical location in your home can make huge difference in the performance of these wireless data cards.

This is significant, because wireless internet cards can and will fluctuate depending on where you are at any one given time.

As much as 100% or more in many cases, depending on where you set up your home computer. Even slight movement can affect the signal strength of the cellular radio frequency in a profound way. Radio signals in general are somewhat temper mental. (and that's an understatement)

From first hand experience over many, many years... this reality can be very frustrating at times.

Hard wire (home based) cable modems and DSL lines do not wavier (fade) in the same manner, and the incoming signal strength is not as erratic.

A little to the left...a little to the right...or maybe moving to another ROOM altogether to get a good signal is not uncommon.

Think of it in terms of an out of town radio station, which is sometimes very clear...and sometimes has lots of static.

The data speeds of wireless 3G & 4G data cards will be all over the map, due to the nature of wireless cellular radio signals.

That's just the way it goes, and everyone needs to be aware of that BEFORE you buy any new equipment. (from Verizon, Sprint or AT&T)

As long as you go into this with your eyes open, and you can accept the basic truth regarding these technology limitations... then by all means proceed.

If you have any major concerns or reservations about this move, I'd advise everyone to do more research, before signing on the dotted line. (for a 1 or 2 year service commitment)

Just my 2 cents.