Data Throttling All day every day

[mjrunion]

I have a so called unlimited plan and have found that I am throttled to less than dial up speed all day mon-fri every day from 8-5 at my work place in 95661. It doesn’t matter if I have used no data or 20gb of data that month. Speeds rarely break 50 KILOBYTES per second. With latency exceeding 800 ms. I have contacted support and they confirm that I am being throttled. I was also told that there are no plans to increase service in my area to correct the capacity issue  

The service is unlimited but is absolutely unusable in its present state. I would like to know if there are any plans by Verizon to correct the capacity issue other than driving people to other providers by charging for services that are not provided. 

[rcschnoor]

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@mjrunion wrote:

I have a so called unlimited plan and have found that I am throttled to less than dial up speed all day mon-fri every day from 8-5 at my work place in 95661. It doesn’t matter if I have used no data or 20gb of data that month.  

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Verizon has 3 levels of unlimited data plans. The cheapest one has the possibility of being "throttled" AT ANY TIME there is congestion on the local towers. The mid-tier has no throttling until you have used at least 22 GB in a month on a line. The highest tier has no throttling until you have used at least 75 GB in a month on a line.

If you are being throttled when you use less than 20 GB of data, you may want to look at getting the next tier up. Complaining about throttling when you choose to have a plan which has throttling AT ANY TIME does not seem logical, especially during the middle of a work day when there are likely to be MANY people utilizing the local towers causing congestion.

[mjrunion]

The issue I have is that the throttling happens all day every day to levels that are unusable. If it were to 600kb fine or if it were a few days a week I understand.  But less than dialup all day every day is in my opinion selling a service that doesn’t work and represents bad capacity planning. Especially since the throttling is only supposed to happen during periods of “unusual” activity. Every day all day is not unusual it is usual and shows a lack of capacity for the existing subscribers. Demanding an extra charge every month to use data when I am already paying for data also seems a bit like bait and switch.  

[boringusername]

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@rcschnoor wrote:

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@mjrunion wrote:

I have a so called unlimited plan and have found that I am throttled to less than dial up speed all day mon-fri every day from 8-5 at my work place in 95661. It doesn’t matter if I have used no data or 20gb of data that month.  

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Verizon has 3 levels of unlimited data plans. The cheapest one has the possibility of being "throttled" AT ANY TIME there is congestion on the local towers. The mid-tier has no throttling until you have used at least 22 GB in a month on a line. The highest tier has no throttling until you have used at least 75 GB in a month on a line.

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WRONG on so many levels

A) Verizon has 2 levels of priority

B) Deprioritzation is not throttling

[mjrunion]

Ok.  Using a different name and underlying process does not change the result. Unusable service unless an additional fee is paid with no guarantee that fee will not increase or that additional fees will be needed to use the service I am paying for. It may be fully legal but it is far from ethical. Sometimes does not mean every day all day. Unusual doesn’t mean consistently. 600kbps is not 50kbps. 

[rcschnoor]

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@mjrunion wrote:

Ok.  Using a different name and underlying process does not change the result. Unusable service unless an additional fee is paid with no guarantee that fee will not increase or that additional fees will be needed to use the service I am paying for. It may be fully legal but it is far from ethical. Sometimes does not mean every day all day. Unusual doesn’t mean consistently. 600kbps is not 50kbps. 

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As has been pointed out, on the GoUnlimited plan, your data is not "throttled" to you phone. It has had it's prioritization placed behind those plans which have not yet met their data thresholds before they become subject to re-prioritization. Additionally, reprioritization does not mean your data is slowed to 600kbps, but simply placed behind those who do not currently have a lower priority. This COULD mean slower than 600kbps or faster than 600kbps.

On the GoUnlimited plan, though, the data used by the hotspot on your device IS throttled to a maximum speed of 600kbps with the possibility of being further "slowed" due to re-prioritization if the tower is congested. This results in a possible "double whammy" for the hotspot on the GoUnlimited plan.

At the very least, it seems it may be worth it to at least try the BeyondUnlimited plan to see if the speeds are acceptable. If you don't like it, you could always switch back or move to another carrier. Many people on these forums have reported being on the GoUnlimited plan who regularly able to use 30-40 GB of data/month. That would not be possible if their data was "throttled"(reprioritized for @boringusername ) all day every day. I also personally know at least a couple of people on the GoUnlimited plan who can stream video without hesitation at many times of the day and cannot at other times of the day. This is obviously a result of their data being re-prioritized.

Personally, I choose to be on the BeyondUnlimited plan because I choose to forgo the reprioritization of my data. Only occasionally have I gone above my 22 GB data threshold and even then, I did not see a difference in the speed of my data. My ESPN/Netflix streaming seemed to work just fine after exceeding my threshold.

Of course, if GoUnlimited is not sufficient for your needs and you are unwilling to at least try BeyondUnlimited, a different carrier may be your only option. Keep in mind, if you go with the lowest tier of unlimited data with another carrier, you may have the same re-prioritization problems as they have similar levels of unlimited data, just like Verizon.

Regardless, good luck with whichever you choose.

[mjrunion]

Capasity planning is a critical part of any network and when the network is beyond capasity every day from 8 am to 5 pm there is a big issue. If there is no plan to expand capasity to meet need then the only result is people like me leaving because paying more with an uncertain promise that it will work is not good policy.

If if there is actually any one from Verizon monitoring these forums, I am a $400 a month account with purchasing influence for a mid sized company.  All I want is information on a plan to resolve the long term congestion at my location. If there isn’t one then I will likely leave Verizon for a competitor and will be advising against  continuing purchases of new service

[vzw_customer_support]

mjrunion,

We value your loyalty and the last thing we want is to see you end your service with us. I know how important it is to get service that works as you need it to. Speeds like you've mentioned wouldn't be okay with me either. I'm glad to see that rcschnoor and boringusername have provided some great details but I'd like to help clear this up and find an option that will work for you.

I first want to clear up why deprioritization happens. Every tower can only handle so many simultaneous connections. If more people are trying to use a tower at once than the tower can handle, we call that congestion. A congested tower will have to slow someone down. There is only so much capacity on that tower. With plans that have deprioritization, part of choosing that plan is accepting that when congestion happens you will be the first to see an effect.

We don't slow you down to any set speed on any of our unlimited plans. If the tower can handle it, our preference is to give everyone full speed no matter how much data has been used. That's why you can be on our cheapest unlimited plan, Go Unlimited, and use a huge amount of data without ever seeing speeds slow down in some areas. Every tower and area will be different though. Some towers are never or almost never going to be congested. That's the reason we have the Go Unlimited plan. For many customers, this can be a way to save money without seeing much impact. Other towers are almost always congested, at least at peak times. These differences are why we can't provide a specific speed. The effect this will have on you will vary a great deal from one tower to another. One tower may be only slightly congested and cause only a small impact while another may be very congested and have a significant impact. That sounds like what you're describing. Whether this is unusual or not depends on the tower. In some areas that might be unusual but that can change over time and in other areas that will happen regularly. 

In those areas, the Go Unlimited plan isn't a good fit if you need fast speeds. That's why we offer two higher unlimited plans for people who need them. With those higher plans, you go to the front of the line if the tower is congested. You only go back to being deprioritized if you use over 22GBs on the Beyond Unlimited plan or 75GBs on the Above Unlimited plan.

We offer many plans to fit different needs and not every plan will be the right fit for every customer. That a plan isn't the right fit for your needs or your area means we need to find a plan that will be a better fit. If a tower is congested at all times then you're absolutely right that only increased capacity will solve that for everyone. Anywhere congestion happens that frequently will be under review but additional capacity isn't something that happens overnight. Depending on local regulations this can be very quick or it can take a long time. That's why we focus on things that can help for now which is getting you onto a better plan. Does that make sense? Are those plans something you would be willing to try to see if there is a difference?

AndrewT_VZW

[mjrunion]

So the only possible troubleshooting/resolution step that there can be offered to an issue that is happening from 8-5 ever work day is to take my $400 a month bill and make it a $500 a month bill?

 If it is a capasity issue this won’t help either. the issue happens all day every day and I will be competing with just as many users who are “prioritized” and I will be paying for the “privilege”.  T mobile has no issue putting 3 towers in range from my location so it is not an issue with local jurisdictions not allowing towers  it is a failure to recognize a capasity issue and address it appropriately.

The service provided is in my opinion fraudulent as it is billed as unlimited data, but if it cannot be used then it is no data at all  I understand that the wiggle words in the contract allow this but it is far from ethical.  

[mjrunion]

I assume that changing plans is not something that can be changed back and reenrolls me in additional contract years. If the “troubleshooting” fails I will not be credited back for the failure and I will be held with the extra $100 a month charges for the term of the new contract. 

[LINEME74]

I too have this issue. Where I work the tower is always congested from 11 till 6.  Before 11 I can get a speed test of 10 to 20 after 11 it drops to less than 1. I was on the beyond 22 gig unlimited and only used 10 gigs and they were still throttling me. So I went back to the first data tier. Cause why pay 10 dollars more a month when they are going to throttle u anyway. No one seems to be able to help it's not the phone. I have tried 5 different phones from google to Samsung to iphone

[vzw_customer_support]

So sorry to hear about the issues with your data speeds during the day, LINEME74. I know you depend on us for reliable service and it's vital that we get to the bottom of this. I understand this is confusing. What's the nearest cross streets and zip code of the location where you have the issues? Do the issues occur both inside and outside? 

RyanM_VZW

[iphoneguy86]

I'll chime in here. I am a former corporate Verizon Employee-left in 2014. When I worked for Verizon no one could touch the 4G LTE speeds that were delivered. I returned to Verizon on 09/20/19 as a customer switching from a AT&T with the purchase of a new iPhone 11 Pro Max and I am in awe at how terribly slow the network speeds are. I pay for the most expensive/highest tier data plan there is for 75 GB of priority high speed LTE and 30 GB Hotspot LTE and I can tell you the network crawls everywhere- indoors outdoors no matter the weather. The network has gone in a very negative direction and I've allowed the company to work with me to troubleshoot and determine what the issue could be and they have been unable to resolve-I've got open NRB and Engineering tickets no one has called me back on. I'm beyond frustrated that I'm paying top tier pricing and I'm getting speeds slower than dial up. Verizon responds typically the same way asking for cross streets and acting as if the issue is surprising. The issue is this:

Your over-managing your network and throttling almost all customers and slowing down everyone; or your data speeds are trash now because your choking the network and not buying new spectrum. That's why I almost throw up when I see commercials about 5G. 5G!???? Fix your 4G LTE before you go around touting anything about 5G. Simply stated your network quality has gone to garbage and you're going to lose a lot of customers if you don't do something about it. Everyone's sick and tired of the fake apologies and excuses about network congestion-you don't expect customers to congest their bill payments you expect the money we expect the service quality you charge for and advertise for. There's no way I was getting 80 mbps on download on a MobileShare Plan and suddenly I come back and in similar areas travelled my speeds crawl at 0.12 mbps down and YouTube videos buffer like crazy for 360p quality. I left AT&T because their customer service was awful but their data was great-I could load 1080p movies on 1 bar of LTE with them. On Verizon forget about it. 

The experience I'm getting with Verizon is awful. Fix it please. 

[Sl0wLan3]

Can't agree more with this. I remember when I could use a hotspot to not only search the web and watch videos in 1080p without any buffering, but download full games in pretty good times. I remember speeds multiple times that of Hughsnet in my area. Now even my device's data is beyound useless, let alone the hotspot. I am constantly getting speeds between 0.01-0.02Mbit/s throughout the day, topping around 1Mbit/s in the same area I used to get those great speeds while no further development has occured in my area since that time. Even in the middle of the closet town where speeds used to be even better I get a fraction of what I used to get. The ignorance Verizon has to their own network is sickening. Either fix the networks, or take the "un" off of the "unlimited".

[vzw_customer_support]

Sl0wLan3, having a constant reliable connection is important, especially when you are using your hotspot. What ZIP Code and nearest intersection are you located at? We would like to review the area. If you are under Network Management, then you may experience slow speeds at time of congestion. Does this issue only happen with your hotspot, or do you have issues with speeds on your smartphones as well?   EricaG_VZW

[rdc]

Happens on all devices once they go over 15g, zip is 21632

[arkie1]

I am in Arkansas-ranked 48th for connection-had to purchase 4GLTE phone/internet for working from home and switch mobiles to unlimited to not go over data on home service. I pay a total of $300/month - mobile data consistently non-existent; cell signal for calls getting worse; started slowing/dropping internet connection on home internet. Was told they made changes to the tower-but I could try the higher tier plan to not be throttled as much. Speed checks even at 9pm are consistently 0.00 Mbps and on rare occasion a little over 1 Mbps. Ping as high as +7200 ms. I have been a customer since 2003. Will be moving from Arkansas and will have more choices. I will be taking my business elsewhere.

[rdc]

I question the congestion answer. I am in a remote area with a tower next to a school. The school has about 1000 students with phones.  My throttled rate doesn't change wether the students are present or not. Once my mifi goes over 15G I get throttled to 600k or less.  Speeds are often 100K, whats funny is when I run a speed test the speed usually increases at least slightly.

Seems the sattletite systems are improving thier data rates, my check into that as an option.

[mbrabbin]

This is a load of garbage coming out of your mouth. I have all three plans on my account and can run speed tests to show you the difference. Throttle time (I'm using a Galaxy S10 5g in the same spot when testing all plans) is 10am to 11pm - 7 days a week, like clockwork. You need to inform customers it truly depends on Verizon owning or leasing bandwidth on their local tower(s) (information Verizon refuses to give up if you call to ask). In my area the 700mhz band is the fastest in performance, but Verizon will automatically switch to the aws band. I even bought a booster to test and I have 5 bars on 700mhz and will promptly switch to two bars and back on AWS in 90 seconds (unless it's after 11pm). Business and legacy unlimited plans still top anyone else for priority data...

[vzw_customer_support]

mbrabbin, 

We know how important speeds are to you. As mentioned in this forum, we do have different unlimited options. Can you tell me what you mean by testing all plans? Have you switched your plans to test this further? Have you tried a tiered plan?

JenelleR_VZW

[GainesK]

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At the very least, it seems it may be worth it to at least try the BeyondUnlimited plan to see if the speeds are acceptable. If you don't like it, you could always switch back or move to another carrier.

Be careful claiming that customers can "always switch back". I called Verizon the day one of their reps convinced my retired mother to change our 6-line family plan to Go Unlimited with concerns. They also told me that there would be nothing to stop me from switching back to our old plan. Of course, now that I'm trying to switch back I'm told that our plan has been retired and we waited too long!

Now I have to deal with moving our 6-line family plan to another carrier.