I haven't seen a Verizon news report to corroborate this, but several outlets are reporting it. Apparently, VzW has decided not to implement the optimization of 4G customers with unlimited plans that was to start today, i.e.,
http://www.droid-life.com/2014/10/01/breaking-verizon-cancels-plans-for-network-optimization-of-unlimited-data-users/#mo…
Ya beat me to it. tikibar1 as Ann154 says ninja'd again But I kind of figured it would Stick..
Woo Hoo! My unlimited data plan says Thank you.
My 2 Lines say that as Well.
Ann154 wrote:
Actually I think it's more likely Verizon just kills it off now.
Boo!
I wasn't even hitting the data usage amount where they were going to start throttling in my normal usage. I have occasionally had 5 to 6 GB of data usage per month since opening this current account. I had intended to watch it to see if I ever did exceed the usage and did get throttled.
The light has been seen! ... somewhat. I am happy to hear that Verizon has dropped plans to throttle users on LTE. What I am disappointed at is the lack of thought that went into the plans months ago when this was announced.
My guess is, the only reason Verizon announced this would be to keep the FCC away, and to keep customer retention high and support calls/complaints low. All three of those look bad to a company, especially when loyal users (the unlimited data pack) are dropping.
The FCC part is the big one. The FCC legally, cannot challenge Verizon on their choice of words. They can only challenge them on their network practices. Since today was supposed to be the day of throttling/prioritization queues, it sure is a coincidence nothing besides words happened. If Verizon began to throttle or de-prioritize the unlimited data users, that would be a violation of the original 700Mhz license agreement. When you violate the FCC granted license, two things happen. You either lose your license (what I would have loved to see if Verizon followed through), or heavy fines with lawsuits to contest the agreement. Either would be a loss for Verizon. The LTE network is essentially dismantled less the AWS spectrum (good luck getting signal indoors), or the fines and court battles occur for months.
I still hold my doubts and will be keeping a close eye on the network. I'm sure many others will be. Yes, I did say I would love to see Verizon's LTE network wind up destroyed by the FCC. I don't mean to be a Verizon hater, as I enjoy using the products they offer, but I share a general hatred for the state of the Telecom industry in the United States. It is a mess that is getting worse.
smith6612 you think is a win? OK I know you'll be shocked when Verizon soon announced the end of unlimited data. Verizon had every right to use the same optimization as the all might T-Mobile and the others. And the have every right to end unlimited data and the FCC can't do squat about that.
I don't think it's a win at all. It's great short term news. Hence why I'm keeping an eye on what their next moves are. I won't be shocked if Verizon announces the end of unlimited data plans, and for sure that is still in their hand. I would take note shortly after the holiday season. I hear there may be a surprising announcement coming along.
Verizon's network management, if they are to apply, are to apply to all types of customers and traffic on an equal basis on the 700Mhz spectrum. That is what the basis of the spectrum agreement calls for. They cannot single-out unlimited data users by de-prioritizing them, or applications by hard throttling the traffic on that spectrum. They can do whatever they please with AWS LTE, EVDO-Rev. A and 1xRTT frequencies.
Verizon already has means of handling abusive customers as laid out in the terms of service. If they catch customers running hotspots off of unlimited data plans or are consuming Terabytes of data by torrenting from their phone, a service suspension or termination clause, depending on the issue is already there. Using hotspot on unlimited data plans is grounds for termination of the unlimited data plan, whereas torrenting can be curtailed by simply shutting off the data until the customer acknowledges the problem. If the torrents are not legal, that's no different from receiving a DMCA request on home Internet which can lead to service termination. I'm being simplistic here, but the tools for detecting and handing such traffic exist without causing drama for the rest of the network.
As for the congestion perspective, a lot of these problems are not to do with the unlimited data customers. These guys were around when there was no LTE, and the 3G network (Remember 2.8Mbps if you were lucky?) was still plenty fast to watch 720p video from YouTube. The problem lies with an inadequately designed network (Density, backhaul capacity) toppled with inefficiencies attributed to wireless communications that exponentially increase as you add additional devices to the network, with poor management decisions (not on the Sprint level of poor, but near there) resulting in these problems. While Verizon is doing well from a fiscal standpoint, internally things are not so hot. Until they are bleeding money quarter over quarter, there's really little excuse.
Go Tom Wheeler.
I understand Verizon's problem, they promised 100's of thousands customer unlimited data to get their business without evaluating the business decision, now they want to back out. Well since they made this same bad decision in the 3G spectrum you cannot have sympathy for them.
When they made the decision to **** over clients based on the amount of money the client was paying them versus network performance they made another bad decision. There "optimization" works if they apply it equally not based on $$$.
Locking my account out of the community forum for providing them feedback was another bad decision.
I am sure glad I filed an FCC complaint about their unfair practices on throttling.
Of course ever since XLTE went in performance has been degraded so that was another bad business decision.
Verizon Score negative 5
In talking to a Rep I've known for a Good length of time, one that worked Alltel then as many did moved over to Verizon and has Unlimited Data as well, this Rep told me that nothing is going to be done this year but next year we might see some changes possibly in Jan. and the Rep. mentioned this is coming from a pretty good source..
I told the Rep how much Data I thought I used the Rep. Looked at my Average for the Last few months & said I use about 4 to 5 about the same as Ann154 I told her how much my Grand Niece used for one month which was 12GB's she was face timing her Dad called it on her iPhone 5 the Rep said that is Quite a bit but it don't even come close to what I used in one month why I was recovering from an Injury and I used over a 100GB's watching shows on Netflix..
The only thing that came to mind when I heard that was WOW.!
