Are grandfathered unlimited data plans now being throttled?

[Panderegg]

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.

[mama23dogs]

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

[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. 😄

[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! 

[mama23dogs]

Nonsense.  Our phones automatically connect to the tower and the service that provides the best connection. There’s no need for some sort of tin foil hat conspiracy theory.  

[XxPhonyGodxX]

The fact is, Verizon is throttling data. There is no tin foil hat conspiracy. Run some data/speed tests and which channels are allowed on which towers when and you will see the same happening to you.

[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. 

[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. 

[vzw_customer_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. 

[joanie552000]

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

[vzw_customer_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

[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.

[vzw_customer_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

[mama23dogs]

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@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

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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. 

[Noe81421]

Verizon is going to lose plenty customers that have been with them over ten years. So, rather lose the guaranteed $300 a month coming in for years then give what the customer is paying for. I read that you casually slid in y'all throttle hotspot and the proof being I had hotspot since it came out but for the first three months at my new address I still recieved impeccable service then suddenly it dropped to dial up speeds. So now I'm paying and extra $100 a month for cruddy  wired internet. Thusly making my internet $400 a month. I have 4 months left on my cruddy wired connection and if I have to renew it I'LL DROP VERIZON LIKE A HOT POTATO WITHOUT ANY REGRETS. So heed Verizon quit messing up your grandfathered customers and playing dumb like you don't know why the service is garbage. So yes ppl Verizon is throttling grandfathered accounts. So quit lying to your customers.

[vzw_customer_support]

Being on the right plan makes all the difference. While we don't want to lose you, I must set proper expectations about your service. I see that you have the grandfathered Unlimited Data Plan. I have 2 lines with that plan myself, and understand the value.

Cellular internet service is not intended to replace residential internet service. Residential data service is wired to homes to deliver the bandwidth and speeds necessary to run a household. Cell sites are shared resources for many vs one wired household. I hope this information helps.  -Gina

[joanie552000]

Throttled is the incorrect term. Our grandfathered unlimited plans have been deprioritized during congestion. Therefore; our speeds have slowed down. I've been on mine since I was a sales rep for verizon 15 yrs ago. Sure; our speeds are back to normal at 3am! But our speeds were always fast, 24/7.