“Verizon through a low key policy page confirmed that it had switched on its data throttling as of Thursday,” Electronista reports. “The top five percent of 3G users on unlimited plans will have their connections slowed down when on heavily congested cell sites both for what’s left of their billing period and for the following period. Those on 4G devices or on a capped plan don’t see the throttling at all.”
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“As described, the limitations are light relative to AT&T and T-Mobile, a fact Verizon is keen to point out,” Electronista reports. “AT&T’s upcoming practice will be a more absolute throttling that slows the top five percent regardless of their choice of network speed or their cell site. T-Mobile’s strategy will automatically slow users down anytime they pass 5GB in a given billing cycle.”
Electronista reports, “Its timing, like AT&T’s, comes just a few weeks before the iPhone 5 is set to show and US carriers could expect a surge in data use.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
So does this mean the iPhone 5 is just another 3G phone?
Quite probably. 4G isn’t a global system, and 4G tech isn’t fully developed in handsets yet, Apple aren’t happy with the performance, according to various reports posted on here. 4G is still limited in the US, is non-existent in the UK, frequencies haven’t even been auctioned yet, and many other countries have little or no 4G infrastructure. Russia is one of the few exceptions.
It would seem like it based on this line in the VZ FAQ page.
“You may also switch to a 4G LTE device, as only 3G deviced on unlimited data plans can be affected.”
When the telcos tell you it’s unlimited, it’s not. Really. It’s unlimited money for them, limited downloads for you. Unlike Apple, they treat all their customers like suckers. F*** them.
Who can say ,”class action”. This is bullshit!!!
It is still unlimited. They never guaranteed you would enjoy it at a specific speed.
Exactly.
People need to read the contracts closer before they threaten lawsuits..
Why cap the users using more data, at the end of the day , isn’t it all the same? So in other words let’s cap the customers that actually use there plan, and the ones that don’t give them better service? Think about it people!!
Instead of increasing network capacity to meet demand, the carriers choose to limit customer access. That’s business for you! Lying, cheating money-grubbers one and all.
So when its 400kb you can’t complain, because you still get 400kb unlimited? LOL
It is interesting to note that this throttle point (2 GB/month) corresponds to a average rate of 772 bytes per second or approximately 6 kilobits/second for a 30 day month.
Verizon advertises that data rates are between 600 and 1400 kbits/second. At the lower end of these rates, you will reach your monthly data limit in approximately 0.3 days or 7 hours.
Another way to look at this limitation is to note that if you listen to a 64 kilobit Internet radio station, you will reach your data limit in 3 days (of 24 hours per day of listening). If you listen only 8 hours per day, you reach your limit in approximately 24 days.
It is too bad that the carriers are not required to provided these type of “truth in advertising” statistics for the services that they offer. It would make choosing a carrier much easier.
skips
Your 64Kbps example comes out to about 70 hours. So 3 days at 24 hours per day is correct. But 8 hours per day would be about 9 days.
At any rate, your point is well taken. Far too many people are willing to accept very limited “unlimited” service. Have we gotten too jaded with advertising to expect truth?
NOW do you see the need for Net Neutrality? This is only going to get worse. It’s going to spread to cable and DSL. It won’t just be throttling, but full on blocking when they see fit. They will speed up access to their services, and the services of their partners while throttling speeds to competitive services such as Net Flix, iTunes, iCloud, and so on.
Net Neutrality says, packets flow freely, no monkeying around with them, and if you must screw around, you have to be completely open about it. But noooooo… Kooky conservatives screaming “NET NEUTRALITY IS Government REGULATION!” are handing our entire communications infrastructure over to a handful of corporations. By creating the appearence of artificial scarcity they will show innovation not in expanding their networks to accommodate demand, but in how to monetize avarice.
plus 1! Well said TM!
5% is 1 in 20. So in a room of 20 people one will be throttled (in bandwidth!). Seems higher than 5%.
Sometimes I wish they would make some of it way more expensive. I see about half the folks on the roadways are either texting or talking on cellphones. I have been rear ended, forced into the barrow pit, and almost had a head on in the past year. I suspect all these were due to distracted drivers. This is just nuts, folks sitting at green lights, running red lights, crossing lane lines. I wish they could somehow make the cost a thousand times higher if the cellphone is in motion while texting or talking. Seems such technology exists.
I am all in favor of a $5000 fine AND a suspended license for a year… When caught texting while driving.
Talking on the phone while driving… Not so much.
but I do see that SOME people can’t for the life of them drive and do anything at the same time…
One more thing..
Your last lines about it costing more while in a cellphone is in motion… Bad idea.
What if you are a passenger?
Screwed cause you are on a bus/train/subway etc.
I think it was ford that was working on a way to disable cell usage while a car is in motion.. Also a bad idea. What about the passengers?
The solution is to make the fine more to deter the usage by the driver, if all they get is a small fine/slap on the wrist.. It deters nothing.
If those top 5% slow their data usage after a warning, wouldn’t “the top 5%” get lower month by month? This “top 5%” bullshit has to go. Give us a hard cap for full 3G and then throttle if you must.