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Are grandfathered unlimited data plans now being throttled?

Starting about 1 month ago, my upload speeds went from 32-43Mbps, down to 5-6Mbps. The spot I do my testing is adjacent to a Verizon cell phone tower, and I have been speedtesting my 4G at this exact spot since I got my first 4G phone in 2011. The consistency of this slow down is dramatic and rendering my service ususable. I use the 4G service for 6Mbps live broadcast streaming equipment, and it's just not cutting it. Does anyone know if Verizon has now throttled grandfathered plans, or perhaps is starting to throttle all 4G service to push 5G abnd make 5G devices look faster to sell customers on that? For reference, my very first 4G phone a Verizon HTC Thunderbolt, got a consistent 10Mbps upload at my test spot, and that was 10 years ago. To be paying massively more for the same service only to be at half the speed I was a decade ago is unbelievable. Phone I am using now is a Verizon locked Samsung Gaklaxy S10e which would typically do 4.5-5.5MB/s upload speeds around my tower and in most places until a month ago.

Comments

Momma23dogs

Verizon does not throttle except for the hotspot.
Any speed problems you were having are due to congestion of the network.

Verizon_Support

Panderegg,

We know how important it is to have great speeds, and we are here to help share more details! The typical upload speeds for 4G LTE are around 2-5 MBPS. It is possible to get faster speeds, particularly if the network is not busy. However, a speed of 5-6 MBPS for 4G LTE is considered normal, and a bit faster than average. This would definitely not indicate any type of throttling for your service. Does that help clarify?

Thanks,

Michelle_VZW

XxPhonyGodxX

Hi Michelle, the post is saying that they were that speed Until a month ago. I have had the same experience, also grandfathered on a go unlimited plan. This throttling has been the experience for everyone on my family plan and many of my friends as of July 2021. This is real, factual. Verizon is either targeting these plans or has degraded very poorly in terms of data speed and reliability.

SargeSmash

I'm seeing the same problem with my point. I have a grandfathered plan, and it depends on the type of traffic whether I'm seeing severely lessened download speeds. Streaming still seems to work just fine, upload speeds are what I'd expect, downloads from Steam or GOG through the clients works fine (I only get an average of 0.5-1.5 MB/s, but that's normal here), some mobile traffic is fine (Speedtest actually gives 6 Mb/s on tablet/phone), but any PC download traffic? Try 50-100 KB/s, tops. And this was even with a new rollover on the month. I honestly have no idea what's going on.

Verizon_Support

We always want you to excellent data speeds. We'd like to see what's going on. Let's get to the bottom of this. Please send us a Private Note for assistance. *Melissa

mghall83

This is all getting really frustrating. I've been a customer for almost 10 years now and I'm about done dealing with this throttling or whatever is going on. I've been getting absolutely horrible "4g" speeds in the past 3-4 months now, literally everywhere I go, small towns, large cities, rural areas it's the same everywhere I'm getting page timeouts and 30 secs+ to load simple websites with no video. Unless it's 10pm or later then everything is perfectly fine... I'm on the unlimited plan for all of my devices and have been for several years.

I travel 4-5 days a week so I'm in all sorts of different cities and locations across the country. The only constant is the service everywhere I go is worse than 14.4k dial up modem from back in the 90's. Speeds are consistantly bad whether I'm on mobile hotspot or just using data regularly off my phone or tablet.

I depend on this service for work and I have no problem paying a premium for the good service I used to receive from Verizon. Now they are literally starting to cost my money with webpages timing out. Oddly enough when I came to the Verizon.com webpage just now my speeds maneuvering around this site were perfect normal, just like it used to be everywhere...

Once I navigate away to another site I get time outs and horrendously slow service on regular webpages like Yahoo or ESPN. Enough with the games already. People are willing to pay good money for top notch service. I don't understand why they would rather risk losing long time customers leaving by throttling us like this. I've had enough

Momma23dogs

@mghall83
wrote:
This is all getting really frustrating. I've been a customer for almost 10 years now and I'm about done dealing with this throttling or whatever is going on. I've been getting absolutely horrible "4g" speeds in the past 3-4 months now, literally everywhere I go, small towns, large cities, rural areas it's the same everywhere I'm getting page timeouts and 30 secs+ to load simple websites with no video. Unless it's 10pm or later then everything is perfectly fine... I'm on the unlimited plan for all of my devices and have been for several years.
I travel 4-5 days a week so I'm in all sorts of different cities and locations across the country. The only constant is the service everywhere I go is worse than 14.4k dial up modem from back in the 90's. Speeds are consistantly bad whether I'm on mobile hotspot or just using data regularly off my phone or tablet.
I depend on this service for work and I have no problem paying a premium for the good service I used to receive from Verizon. Now they are literally starting to cost my money with webpages timing out. Oddly enough when I came to the Verizon.com webpage just now my speeds maneuvering around this site were perfect normal, just like it used to be everywhere...
Once I navigate away to another site I get time outs and horrendously slow service on regular webpages like Yahoo or ESPN. Enough with the games already. People are willing to pay good money for top notch service. I don't understand why they would rather risk losing long time customers leaving by throttling us like this. I've had enough

You’re asking for some thing that’s not possible. You are using a shared resource, and when more people are using that shared resources than that shared resources can provide, you get congestion, and you get slower speeds..

it is not Verizon‘s problem to solve. They can’t. It is always 100% on us customers to make service choices that suit our needs. If Verizon no longer suits yours, then leave. This is entirely up to you to make a change to another network if you think you will get better service. Despite AT&T having many many new connections in the past two years, their network seems to be going gangbusters. In fact they removed the deep prioritization on their top unlimited plan.

The most significant complaint I see about Verizon or T-Mobile is that there is too much congestion and not enough band with to go around. Ask around your friends and neighbors and see if they are having a good experience with AT&T, congestion wise, and coverage wise.

Panderegg

I use my serive between 10PM and 6AM...I have discovered the "issue" is related to BAND 13. Band 66 and Band 5 provide amazing as always Verizon speeds, upload speeds of over 30Mbps. When I get a fixed 5-6Mbps, I check the LTE connection, and it is 100% always Band 13. I just did a speed trst looking at a Verizon tower...111Mbps DL, 3Mbps UL.

I don't know if this is some sort of 5G thing where the band 13 transmitters are being limited to less than 6Mbps ALWAYS, or what, but it's definitely Band 13 related.

This issue is so seriously affecting my ability to use the service (I just missed a broadcasrt slot in my newscast feeding in 150MB video file which took too long 14 minutes) I have been shopping around for T Mobile or AT&T plans. I am also looking at weird rooted phone hacks to keep the phone from going to band 13.

Paul

Panderegg

https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-lock-Android-phone-to-particular-LTE-band-without-root-access

Panderegg

Samsung Band Selector app resolved my issue. Toggle for quick access to Band 66 only, speed increase is instant, and can toggle off again when not needed for normal best RSSI signal Verizon cellular band selection.

SargeSmash

I'll follow up on this and say that testing on a different tower at work, and there was no throttling. 45 Mbps down, since I get better signal. I'm thinking this may be a local tower issue, and I'll see if I can submit a request for someone to look at it. Samsung Band Selector won't help on my MiFi point, but my issue may be something different entirely since I'm on band 5.

Momma23dogs

@SargeSmash
wrote:
I'll follow up on this and say that testing on a different tower at work, and there was no throttling. 45 Mbps down, since I get better signal. I'm thinking this may be a local tower issue, and I'll see if I can submit a request for someone to look at it. Samsung Band Selector won't help on my MiFi point, but my issue may be something different entirely since I'm on band 5.

You continue to describe using an incorrect term, “throttling” when this is classic example of network congestion on a specific tower. The fact that your speed is up on a different tower in a different location confirms that.

However, there is nothing wrong with submitting a maintenance request for another tower. If enough people are having the same problem, it is somewhat possible a tower was damaged during bad weather.

Verizon_Support

SargeSmash, having the data speeds I am use to is crucial. I will be more than happy to assist. Please share with me what zip and cross streets are you having data issues in?-Rodney

SargeSmash

Perhaps throttling isn't the right term, but it's clearly related to the sorts of packets that are being transferred. PC-based downloads and browser activity are incredibly slow, whereas on the very same PC, Steam and GOG downloads through the client are as fast as I expect, and streaming at 1080p is no problem most of the time. There's clearly something going on with how it's treating certain types of traffic.

SargeSmash

Will follow up via PM.

Romeo45night

Download quickshortcutmaker

Then search for "band mode" in the app

Select ur band! Verizon band 4 rocks here!

Carrier aggregation is slow, a band 2 is faulty, band 5 is slow... But, I guess it's where ur at! Band 66 is supposedly a superset!

Verizon don't want us to know what bands they put us on, nor how to change bands! Obviously, I've spent 12 hours time calling their customer serve these past 9 months! Not one god dang customer service agent solved my issues!

It's not the phone, not the settings! It's the cell company which prl my phone connection codes everyday! Telling my phone to connect to the dirttiest towers, the dirttiest bands!

WhyBADservice

Usually it would be network congestion causing these problems. But this is a rampant problem being widely discussed that only started recently and immediately might I add. Here like clockwork on Saturday and Sundays this takes place. No data access except once or twice twice 3 seconds every 3 hours. From a.m. to late p.m. for the past several months. Congestion wouldn't be that specific for me

joanie552000

EXACT SAME NUMBERS HERE TOO!!! SEEMS THEY HAVE DEPRIORITIZED OUR SERVICE. I AGREE ... NO SENSE KEEPING VERIZON IF THEY DID THIS. GUESS I'LL GET A CHEAP AT&T PLAN NOW & DUMP VERIZON!!

joanie552000

You dont seem to understand the grandfathered in plan ... that plan gets priority service & comgestion isnt applicable to the grandfathered in plan & why we paid $30-40 more than you did all these years. Verizon seems to have deprioritized our plans & took our money; only to stab us in the back. BTW; I am an ex-verizon (sales rep), employee who is well aware of these internet games.

joanie552000

Grandfathered in plans are not applicable to congestion. WhenVerizon secretly change that??? I am a prior Verizon employee.

joanie552000

Paul, same thing here. I'm shopping for a faster service as well; since verizon basically chose to do this to us; without warning. I'm a 13yr customer; ex verizon employee. I domnt appreciatd these games verizon has played with us.

Verizon_Support

We are here to help with any concerns you have about your data speeds and usage. Please send us a Private Note at your earliest convenience to better assist. ~Vic

[Deleted User]

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