Who here is a victim of this prctice? I have a very old long standing 3G unlimited plan and have been told by 2 diffrent Verizon Tech support people that I am in fact being Optimized due to being the top 5% user on my cell site. I call BS. I was told the only way around Optimization is to buy a 4G device, my response was why? You dont offer unlimited plan with 4G and I dont have 4G coverage here in the area. All a ploy to force you off the 3G unlimited plans. I find it funny that during times when i used other forms of connectivity and still paid the 60 for my unlimited plan per month that some months never got pluged in or used that I did not get credit for not usuing my unlimited service but get dinged early in month casue i reached some imaginary thershold that reperesents top 5% on my local tower? My average usage on 3G is about 9-12 gig per month, this is the only connection i have in my country home. I have opened a complaint with attorny generals office in Indianapolis to address this issue. Who else has reached out against this unfair practice?
Have you read this Network Optimization policy from Verizon Wireless?
http://m-support.verizonwireless.com/information/data_disclosure.html
I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.
Hello,
While I am not a victim to this practice I would like to add your story does not seem to be consistent with what I have heard and read on the subject. In most of the articles I have read it is only the top 5% in the nation that VZW applies a throttle to. Those users are restricted for a month or longer at a time before normal broadband speeds are returned. You had to be a pretty big time offender (over 100GB/mo) to be considered for that list.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/03/verizon-can-now-throttle-top-five-percent-of-bandwidth-hogs-down/
Other service providers exercise this authority too. A recent article by EVDOInfo.com reported that Comcast can even cancel your cable connection if you exceed 250GB/mo. You shouldnt be on anyone's radar at your consumption level.
http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/data-usage/
Perhaps something has changed that I am not aware of but I was under the impression that they did not do this tower by tower. Theoretically VZW could be throttling users who are under the data limit for thier account if noone else was using it as much as they were in thier area according to your story. VZW should have an article posted somewhere that explains how they monitor and enforce data caps, I just dont have a link handy at the moment.
**Edit** Seems Ann beat me to the punch: http://m-support.verizonwireless.com/information/data_disclosure.html
That being said there definitly is something funny going on with the VZW tech reps you have been speaking too. Suggesting that a 4G data plan would not be vulnerable to throttling is pretty rediculous.
**Edit** There seems to be a difference between throttling and optimization. Perhaps that is where the confusion lies?
Sorry if you already have unlimited data then you should have it when you upgrade to a new 4G device. I have a Galaxy Nexus and a Charge both of which we have unlimited data...
Verizon only throttle on peak usage times. Which ALL ISP world wide do. It is nothing new. Verizon is applying what landline ISP has been doing to their 3G network.
To use that much data to get on the list on 3G you would have to be violating the terms of service which is easy to prove.
Broadband devices (USB and Mifi) do not have a grandfathered unlimited data plan option. When a person upgrades from a 3G only broadband device with unlimited
broadband plan to a 4G LTE broadband device they must select one of the tiered broadband data plans.
I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.
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I know and understand this Optimization as presented long after my purchase of an unlimited plan. I am being Optimized throttled to a level less than a dial up connction and was told this will stay in place until end of billing cycle and reestablished when i met the top 5% user on my site. I am not a gamer at all and surf the typical sites and post a pic no and then or download some you tube. I dotnstream movies like netflix and such or music like pandora and such thru my pc. I also understand the diffence from my Bionic unlimited that gets grandfathered in and my 760 that dont. seems odd that the usb devices are restricted and the whole practice of Optimization i.e. a bs word for Throttleing is even legal. If I was using a 100 gig per month be one thing I dont think I have ever broke past 12gig to be honest. To be forced to pay the crazy charges for a 10g 4g service then 10.00 a gig for overage and 4g not even availalble is poor customer service. If you read the fine print on that Optimization read is plain says that Verizon reserves the right to Optimize 4G in the future. Where does this stop?????????????????
ejcouch wrote:
I know and understand this Optimization as presented long after my purchase of an unlimited plan. I am being Optimized throttled to a level less than a dial up connction and was told this will stay in place until end of billing cycle and reestablished when i met the top 5% user on my site. I am not a gamer at all and surf the typical sites and post a pic no and then or download some you tube. I dotnstream movies like netflix and such or music like pandora and such thru my pc. I also understand the diffence from my Bionic unlimited that gets grandfathered in and my 760 that dont. seems odd that the usb devices are restricted and the whole practice of Optimization i.e. a ** word for Throttleing is even legal. If I was using a 100 gig per month be one thing I dont think I have ever broke past 12gig to be honest. To be forced to pay the crazy charges for a 10g 4g service then 10.00 a gig for overage and 4g not even availalble is poor customer service. If you read the fine print on that Optimization read is plain says that Verizon reserves the right to Optimize 4G in the future. Where does this stop?????????????????
It's been legal since landline providers. As I said before Verizon is implementing the same stuff ISP been doing for years. Verizon is starting to ENFORCE something that has been in the terms and conditions.
4G network will always be less congested than the 3G network. Data moves much quicker and ports close and open quicker due to the difference in speeds. The longer ports stay open the more congested things become. 4G will not be seeing throttle for a long while.
Out of curiousity, how much have your speeds decreased since you were informed of the optimization? Try running a few tests on speedtest.net for us and post your results. A typical 3G connection will run around 1Mb for download.
As I read further into the Optimization document it does seem like VZW is applying Optimization based on your tower and time of day. However, you are not necessarily flagged and put on the Optimization list based solely on your tower. Optimization does not suggest you will be slowed 100% of the time. It does suggest that if your tower is congested at any point in the day you will move to the bottom of the totem pole for priority of bandwidth. It would be possible to travel to a different site and connect to that tower instead or wait for an off peak hour. In both those situations your normal speed should be restored.
Throttling is a garunteed slow down 100% of the time for the duration of the billing period.
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