Why throttle unlimited 3G/4G data users?... Hmmmm, let's seeee.
wildroid
Newbie

I have been a Verizon customer for almost 8 years and never had a complaint but now I do. I've had unlimited data since I bought the DROID1 and would get online alot but didn't download much or watch videos or listen to music too much cuz frankly it was slow, at least for video. I've never been a data hog and it's not my intention to be one. So now I have a GALAXY NEXUS since the 16th of DEC. Well, through almost the whole billing cycle, which ends on the 13th of each month, I had racked up just over 16GB of data usage. You might say that's alot and it is for those of us who never dreamed of being able to download stuff on your phone within seconds or a couple minutes or stream videos without them stopping to load. That was at first but now I don't get online all the time and don't download as much because I don't wanna be glued to my phone every second of the day but I love having 4G, it's great. Anyway, now when I get online and in particular, when I'm home, I notice that 4G and/or 3G will drop off and not comeback as quickly or when watching a video data will drop from 4G to 3G to 1x. There have been a couple days in my new billing cycle in which had no data connection at all for an our in each of those days. I even called them to find out if there had been a data outage on those particular days but there wasn't. Nothing was mentioned online either. Look I understand that Veriiiizon is saying that they only throttle the top 5% of data users on 3G but they, I think, are doing it to 4G users as well. Yea, there are people tethering whether it's on there plan or by hacking and are using enormous amounts of bandwidth. But for people like me that may download and stream on their phones every now and then, after the fever of first using 4G wears off, it's not fair. Heck, even throttling those that are tethering but tethering because it's on there plan and have unlimited data is unfair. I mean, I have unlimited data and so do those that tether and are abiding by the rules. Why should those of us with unlimited data that are abiding by the rules be throttled when we're paying for what we want and expect?... UNLIMITED DATA! I and I'm sure many others feel angry that we're being throttled for using too much data since we pay so much money to Verizon to have unlimited data just to have them turn around and limit our data anyway. Now to my main reason for this rant, I mean discussion...lol;) I believe that Verizon is throttling unlimited data users because they want us to get so fed up with having our data connection bogged down that we'll opt for the tiered data. That way when we go over our allowance they can charge $10 a pop for every gigabyte we use. You know what? They probably wont throttle us cuz they want us to rack up data so they can make a killing. See with us unlimited data users including those with tethering included in their plans they can't charge more unless we go against the rules and hack the phone to tether and there by giving them the right to change you to a tiered plan if you don't stop after receiving a warning. That's what happened to a friend of mine on ATT who has unlimited data. Oh, and all this I'm discussing now, I bet is ATT's intentions as well. They gave him a warning to stop or they would change him to a tiered plan. See, he did it wrong. He wasn't paying for tether so it was their right to do that. It's not right that those of us that are doing it the right way should be throttled, especially when we're paying tons of money for unlimited data. Come on Verizon. You're doing this on purpose to try and get us unlimited data users to get fed up with being throttled to switch to tiered data and make us pay up the nose once we go over the tiny bit of data allowance you give us. The sad part is that I bet you wouldn't throttle us cuz it's contrary to your goal of making us pay more. I would like to know. For those of you that hadn't kept a close eye on your usage for some reason or another and went over your data allowance. Did you experience data throttling? If you didn't don't you question why they didn't throttle you? If they didn't maybe it's for the very reason I speculated about above. They are more then happy to let you gobble up gobs and gobs of data so that they can lay those hefty charges on you. Something to think about... hmmmmm? Even with all my ranting, I mean discussing;) I've never had a bad experience with Verizon's service in general. I just don't like that I'm probably being ripped off for something that I should be getting. UNLIMITED DATA!!!

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Re: Why throttle unlimited 3G/4G data users?... Hmmmm, let's seeee.
budone
Legend

The drop offs have nothing to do with throttling as only 3G phones with an unlimited plan will be throttled. 4G devices are not included in the policy

The drop offs are an issue with 4G devices. 4G is new and for VZW to get a 4G device built needs different radios for each type of data. At this point the handoffs are not handled all that well

But will get better.

Re: Why throttle unlimited 3G/4G data users?... Hmmmm, let's seeee.
Wildman
Legend

4G and hotspot services changed the game, with the ability for one user to have up to 5 devices on at one time it is easy to have the customers to max out bandwidth limits but I do not see any throttling on my device because I use my device regularly because it responds better than my home Roadrunner service.  I have had up to 4 devices online while my device was in my pocket without even noticing that I was using my device.

Re: Why throttle unlimited 3G/4G data users?... Hmmmm, let's seeee.
wildroid
Newbie

Yea, maybe that's the case maybe not, I don't know. I have read about the whole thing with the handoffs from 3G to 4G and back. I'm still suspicious though. My billing cycle starts on the 14th of each month I got the GNEX 2 days after. So for most of the last billing cycle I had no problems with 4G and 3G I mean it was consistent and I used over 16gigs. Now I'm noticing the data drops off when I try to watch a video or download something and I'm not getting online as consistently as I was at first when I got 4G fever lol. Anyway, I understand your point and I am informed about 4G having problems right now on Verizon and that it's new technology and I know that most of the time early adopters get all the bugs. I'm just talking about what I'm experiencing. At first my data connection is awesome and now it seems that after I racked up 16gigs of data usage last month they are throttling me. Yes, it's just speculation but it seems suspicious to me.

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Re: Why throttle unlimited 3G/4G data users?... Hmmmm, let's seeee.
Tidbits
Legend

I should be throttled as well... I am not though... I get the same 25-50mbps everytime. For fun and giggles i decided to kinda push the limits of what i usually average(5-6gb a month when work is booming, but 2.5gb a month real average). Since having the GN I have pushed 25gb with Netflix and downloading of apps and cad files. My cycle resets on the second.

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Re: Why throttle unlimited 3G/4G data users?... Hmmmm, let's seeee.
wildroid
Newbie

Thanks budone, Wildman, and Tidbits for your comments and info so far. As for Wildman and Tidbits, I'm glad that you guys have had no problems with your data connections or speed, and I hope it continues that way. I hope I'm wrong about the throttling and that it all does have to do with the 4G/3G handoffs. Nevertheless, if they are throttling I think it should stop. All of us unlimited data and unlimited data/tethering customers should not be penalized for using too much data when the point of having an unlimited data plan is to have no limit. Also, I think it's wrong for Verizon to do it to the 3G only customers as well. They are paying for unlimited data why shouldn't they get it. Us customers who are doing it the right way should not be bunched up (if that's what they're doing) with those that have unlimited data but are hacking their phones/devices to tether and hog up a bunch of data without getting tethering on their plans. Of course, unless my speculation about Verizon trying to get unlimited data customers tired of being throttled to switch to tiered data is found to be true I guess the data handoff issue is the culprit. Now, a question to budone. If the problem is the radios, is it a hardware or software issue? If hardware then I guess we have to talk to Verizon or the manufacturers about replacing the phones, right? If software, is the 4.0.3 update for the GNEX or any updates for other 4G phones suppose to fix the handoff issue or just alleviate most of the problem until the next updates after that actually fixes it? I was also reading that the problem could very well be the SIM cards and their software. I've read on a couple of Android forums that it seems that when the SIM is checking if one's phone is provisioned to be on the 4G and 3G sides of the network it's having trouble with the handoff. Though, I also read that people that were having problems on their 4G phones were given new SIM's and that for some it helped and for others it didn't. In addition, all the people having problems with their 4G phones were told updates would fix the problems. Again some say that the updates did fix the problems and others say they didn't. Is it the SIM or the SIM's software having problems?

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Re: Why throttle unlimited 3G/4G data users?... Hmmmm, let's seeee.
Tidbits
Legend

The major problem right now with unlimited is semantics.  By definition as long as you are not paying for overages you do in fact have unlimited data.  Unlimited data and unlimited bandwidth are two different things by definition.  The unlimited data plan is just you don't pay more for data than you already are, and the other is what we currently have.  You can use all the bandwidth you want, but you have to pay for the data.  This was the court ruling of 5 different courts starting during 1998.  Arguing semantics in court never works well.  That's a whole different subject altogether. One benefit from these court cases are seen in your terms(Anything related to data was never changed) are that we have diminishing returns on the ETF.

I think it's just hand offs and it has nothing to do with the Sim, or other things.  It's a placebo effect.  When the network went down 3 times 1 out of 3 times I couldn't authenticate and I had to play around with Airplane mode. The other two times I connected without a hitch when the network was up.  Sometimes when I turn my device off I have to play with airplane more to connect.  At some point when Verizon transitions everything and completes the network it will get better as they are planning to go VoLTE+ and dropping the old networks so we'll have 1 scheme.

Re: Why throttle unlimited 3G/4G data users?... Hmmmm, let's seeee.
wildroid
Newbie
Thanks for the reply Tidbits. It probably is the network being buggy it's just frustrating sometimes. Do you think most of the kinks with LTE will be worked this year or later?
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Re: Why throttle unlimited 3G/4G data users?... Hmmmm, let's seeee.
Wildman
Legend

I experienced buggy connections for the first month or so and it gradually got better for me but areas can differ for some but I do not see them not ironing out the bugs shortly but also they could be working on getting as many 4G states online and then work on fine tuning the networks bugs,

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Re: Why throttle unlimited 3G/4G data users?... Hmmmm, let's seeee.
budone
Legend

Well after my defending of VZW and it was not throttling 4G devices (and I still feel it mostly is not) THEN I saw something today that makes me wonder.

I posted my question here.

https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/766798

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