Verizon Implements Network Optimization - Throttling Top 5%

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3Gstore_Matt

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Earlier this year Verizon announced their plans of network optimization to control the top 5% of data users bringing down the service for everybody else. Verizon has finally implemented this system and users going over 2GB a month on an older 3G unlimited data plan may find themselves surfing at reduced speeds shortly.

Details can be found here - Verizon Implements Network Optimization - Throttling Top 5% of Users

So what do you think about Verizon's new network optimization? I think it's interesting this is being officially announced with rumors of the next iPhone going live sometime next month.
 
This really sucks!  We depend on Verizon's wireless internet for all of our internet access for the 8 or 9 months that we are on the road.  We use between 3 & 6 GB per month and do not download movies or music. 
 
George, it will only affect you if you're using a congested tower, and then only during periods of congestion.  I think it's a very fair way of handling network congestion.  For email and web browsing, you won't notice it.

How do you use so much data if you don't view videos or stream music?
 
George, you could also buy 5GB or 10 GB per month instead of using the unlimited plan.
 
Ned said:
That's like Russian Roulette :)
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Your telling me!

FrankNSharon said:
George, you could also buy 5GB or 10 GB per month instead of using the unlimited plan.
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  We were on the 3GB plan.  Then when i threw my 3GB air card away at McDonalds and replaced it with the 4GB I had to switch up to the 5GB plan.  This month we got hit with overage.  I guess there is a lot worse things, so I don't complain.  I have begun an education program to point out that the clock runs just like the old long distance phone calls.  We will have to see if it is helping. 
 
If you're on the 5GB data plan, you aren't subject to network optimization.  That only applies to customers with the older unlimited 3G data plan.  It also doesn't apply to any 4G data plans.
 
It's also a ploy by Verizon to get us old twentieth century folks to upgrade our equipment ($$) and extend our contracts($$).

 
It's certainly better than the throttling that the other carriers are employing (Sprint excepted but probably not far behind).  And they put the entire policy out in public where it's easy to find and understand.  I think VZW did it right this time.
 
I wonder how the new optimization will affect Millenicom Advanced (20GB) plan subscribers. VZW lists us as "Unlimited" according to my online account with them.
 
3Gstore_Matt said:
Earlier this year Verizon announced their plans of network optimization to control the top 5% of data users bringing down the service for everybody else. Verizon has finally implemented this system and users going over 2GB a month on an older 3G unlimited data plan may find themselves surfing at reduced speeds shortly.

Details can be found here - Verizon Implements Network Optimization - Throttling Top 5% of Users

So what do you think about Verizon's new network optimization? I think it's interesting this is being officially announced with rumors of the next iPhone going live sometime next month.
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Interesting concept.  Pay more if you use more.

 
Ned said:
Some would call that un-American.
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Personally I think they could have been a bit more generous with the data allowance on 4G modems. I remember when I was covering the press release when they announced all the details, and I almost fell over when they said 5GB or 10GB.

Considering the service is at least 10-15x faster than 3G, you'd think they'd have done a larger cap. I was personally hoping they'd have a low usage plan for like 10GB and a higher tier at 25GB (me being reasonable). The service isn't designed to be a wireline service, but when you promote downloading big games & video's it doesn't make a ton of sense.

Yesterday, I rented a movie on Vudu and used 7.5GB just watching one HDX movie that wasn't quite 2 hours long. LTE can easily support their HDX service (requires 9Mbps), and I would have blown past the 5GB tier in under 2 hours.

The service is amazing and where it's available it's almost as fast as my dedicated cable connection, but just sucks that you can't do some things without paying an arm and leg.

 
What got us this month was the new Garmin GPS we bought.  As soon as I began messing with it I realized that we needed an update.  It ended up being over 1GB.  That was another story in itself.

Attempting to do the download here in the middle of the forest the computer was telling me it was goind to take something like 3+ hours.  So, I took the lap=top and VZW 4GB air card and drove to town.  Once on 4GB it went pretty fast, However it was still a matter of a min or two.
 
Last month we kept track of our Verizon bandwidth usage.  Both of us using our two laptops doing everything we wanted (no restraints) plus my new Verizon Samsung Charge Smartphone contributed a lot because I was learning how to use it.  Once in a while I buy a song or two and we do not download movies. 

We were using both of our Verizon data plans during the month.  One is an unlimited 4G data plan for the Verizon smartphone and the other is a 4G Pantech UML290 modem data plan which is limited to 5GB per month or we pay more.

Our entire combined usage for the month was 3.25 Gbytes.

JerryF

 
Jerry, you're just not doing your part to congest the internet.  Try harder next month :D
 
We use Motosat as our primary ISP but the reason I bought a SuperUSB adapter was to use campground WIFI for most of our updates for GPS, etc and for whatever streaming we do.
 
geodrake said:
DW playing games and clicking on everything.
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I quit playing all those games on FB.......I cannot believe how much usage they took up!!!!! Our limit is 5 and I topped out each month at 4.9. this month I am 4 days from reset and have not exceeded 2 yet!!! I don't suppose VZW will charge less for less usage? ;)
 
Mary Jane said:
I quit playing all those games on FB.......I cannot believe how much usage they took up!!!!! Our limit is 5 and I topped out each month at 4.9. this month I am 4 days from reset and have not exceeded 2 yet!!! I don't suppose VZW will charge less for less usage? ;)
Click to expand...

Of course they will. Use more, pay more. Use less, pay ???
 
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