How slow is the "Start Unlimited Plan" during times of congestion/traffic?
pastorjdh
Enthusiast - Level 2

Oh dear God, save yourself the nightmare. I live in a small town and have full bars almost everywhere, BUT I can seldom watch ANY videos no matter what quality I choose. Even WhatsApp is extremely slow. The lowest tier "unlimited" plan is total garbage. It is worse than old dial-up speeds. It is basically a marketing gimmick to get people to switch to Verizon and then upsell them once they realize they have bought something worthless.  I seldom use even 2 gigs of data in a month, so I am not being throttled for overuse. I don't have Facebook, Twitter, any music streaming service, or any other thing like that. I use my phone to talk, text, message with Whatsapp, and watch some videos on youtube, mainly DIY videos while I am out in the field working. After suffering extreme frustration for the last year with this worthless service I am now shopping around for something that actually works. 

Re: How slow is the "Start Unlimited Plan" during times of congestion/traffic?
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

pastorjdh

 

This is definitely not the way we want you to feel about us and we certainly do not want to see you go. Keeping you connected is always our goal. That said, I'd like to help. Where are you located (zip code)? Which services are impacted (just data or all)?

 

EdwardL_VZW

 

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Re: How slow is the "Start Unlimited Plan" during times of congestion/traffic?
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

One of our main goals is your satisfaction and we are concerned to learn you are not satisfied with your plan. Please check the new unlimited plans we have to offer you and let us know if you would like to change your plan:

https://www.verizonwireless.com/plans/

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Re: How slow is the "Start Unlimited Plan" during times of congestion/traffic?
acraftylady2
Specialist - Level 2

I have start unlimited and have a samsung note 10 plus and no streaming issues here and I do everything on my phone.   No slow downs what so ever even traveling around before the pandemic started.  We have 3 different phones on this plan.  Two live here and one lives in another state and we are not experiencing that with any phone on start unlimited.  

 

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Re: How slow is the "Start Unlimited Plan" during times of congestion/traffic?
pastorjdh
Enthusiast - Level 2

Just data. I have called and chatted with you guys. You tell me to upgrade and that start unlimited is not geared for video streaming at any resolution. I am in 32570 area code. I was going to go to the new prepaid service called Visible, but our four new phones will not work on it for some reason. I'll probably have to upgrade to "watch more" just to get a useable phone. You just don't have any thing for low data users who occasionally watch videos. It is all or nothing, at least in my zip.

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Re: How slow is the "Start Unlimited Plan" during times of congestion/traffic?
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

pastorjdh, this is a hard specifically answer, because it is all based on the amount of congestion. The higher the congestion, the slower your data services may be. I have seen speeds as low as 3G and as high as being negligible to notice. - ErichC_VZW

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Re: How slow is the "Start Unlimited Plan" during times of congestion/traffic?
pastorjdh
Enthusiast - Level 2

I would love 3g speeds, as well as being able to watch standard definition videos as the marketing ploy suggests. Unfortunately, as many have stated, I am not getting that at all. I guess my area has a limited amount of towers or something. I have great coverage everywhere, but Verizon is constantly "managing" my data, and I can almost never stream any video at all. I live in a fairly small town so I expected less "congestion," but it may be the opposite. I am a very low data user and almost never use 2gigs in a month. Unfortunately, Start Unlimited does not take that into account. It "manages" data all the time. In other words, Verizon slows it way down on purpose from the first megabit used to the last. They say they do it if there is "congestion," which just means they put you last in line and give priority to the other customers who pay more or have different plans. I thought that was fairly reasonable until I found out that it makes the service useless for using the internet anywhere there is "congestion," which I imagine must be most of the U.S.A.. 

This Start Unlimited appears to be a crapshoot with the odds greatly stacked against us. It seems that some people live in areas with little to no "congestion." For those people, however few they may be, the service must be a dream for the price. 

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Re: How slow is the "Start Unlimited Plan" during times of congestion/traffic?
pastorjdh
Enthusiast - Level 2

Very interesting indeed! What zip codes would that be in? I find it hard to imagine no one noticing "congestion" anywhere. Even if you had the top tier service, you would experience some issues traveling here and there. I don't think this is an honest answer. It just does not agree with the vast majority of people who have complained about Start Unlimited. I am skeptical about "positive" reviews showing up in a complaint post. I tend to believe it is a Verizon employee or service to watch over Verizon's reputation online. There is no way you have a service that is throttled everywhere there is "congestion" and you have zero issues in two states and when traveling. I hope no one falls for that and takes the leap only to find out they were duped. 

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Re: How slow is the "Start Unlimited Plan" during times of congestion/traffic?
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

We totally understand questioning congestion for an area with a low population, pastorjdh. However, congestion is not just caused by how many users are connected to towers in a certain area, but also the bandwidth that is provided to the towers too.

 

If the area you live in does not offer land line based services for cable internet or highspeed broadband connections for businesses, then this would also limit the bandwidth to our towers. This would mean that less users on the towers with a high data usage would cause congestion.

 

Have you though of changing plans to one that has a premium data allowance or a tiered data allowance? 

 

https://www.verizon.com/plans/

 

StevenG_VZW

 

 

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Re: How slow is the "Start Unlimited Plan" during times of congestion/traffic?
pastorjdh
Enthusiast - Level 2

When I said small town, I did not mean rural area without modern lines. I live on a state highway with 100% fiber optic Gigabit internet service. Nearly every neighborhood in this area has top of the line everything, unless you go out to the rural areas where options are limited. Pace/Milton Florida is considered a small town compared to our Neighbor Pensacola, but it still has about every business imaginable here. 

No matter where I traveled with the Start Unlimited plan, it was worthless for using Youtube or anything like that. I went to other states and many other cities, and it was always the same worthless service. I finally bit the bullet and paid the extra $10 for "play more unlimited," and I have not had any issues since. As I said, the Start Unlimited is a ploy to get people into the unlimited service and then they will find they need to upgrade to actually use it. I have met many people who have had the exact same experience and there are multiple accounts of that online. As I mentioned previously, I am extremely skeptical  when I see someone online saying they have no problems streaming with Start Unlimited. With so much dishonesty in business and online actions these days, I just don't believe that is true. I have yet to meet a real person who has had not problems with Start Unlimited. 

I am very satisfied with the Play Unlimited plan and the price of it. I just felt duped by the Start Unlimited ploy. My cell phone bill is cheaper than ever for my family of four even with two of us using the Play More plan. Verizon has been a million times better than ATT when I make changes. So far, things have prorated correctly, and Verizon has not tried to slip in ridiculous charges like ATT used to do all the time to us. There are no ridiculous line access charges or shady prorating practices with Verizon. I understand why they have a bottom tier unlimited plan to pull people in. It is just business and it works. Most people eventually just bite the bullet and pay the extra $10 per month for useable service. Others just depend on Wifi and don't use their phones much when they are away from it. 

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