Verizon Wireless to throttle data speeds of heaviest users, optimize content; starts today

The policy is vague and open to Verizon’s own interpretation… “we may reduce speeds”…”periodically “…”may minimally impact ” file quality. Basically Verizon wants to charge for a service and penalize customers for using it.

I still don’t think Verizon will offer any better service than ATT. We will just have to wait and see when 3-5 million iPhone users get on it.

I think you guys are missing the most important part of Verizon’s statement, if you are one of the heavy users on their network that is.
we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and “IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING BILLING CYCLE”
That seems like a pretty stiff punishment to me just for using your “unlimited data.” What if you got throttled for a total of 6 weeks, that would suck!

More evidence of Verizon (not AT&T) now bending over backwards to lick the balls of Apple… How about you make it clear Verizon, what the hell is “extraordinary amount of data”?? Can you be any more ambiguous??

I like how they don’t actually give anything close to an actual number so that I can try to stay below the needed amount…unless they publish usage statistics such as how much the top 5% of people use.

What!! I stayed up and when I tried to order from Verizon, the site was not working so I ordered it through Apple….Did anyone else have an issue with the Verizon site?

Oh welllllllll, that’s what we get if pretty is so important.

This is really nice of them.

I cannot AFFORD INTERNET service anymore!!
I did not expect to lose my job 9 months ago and never thought I would still be unemployed this long.

Verizon refuses to let me out of my contract without paying $650.00. If I had $650.00 my son and I would live in an apartment and not in a homeless shelter.

I don’t want to hog bandwidth from other users but it’s my only option for job searching online. I would love to get out of the smartphone contract and maybe have a Tracphone for emergencies but in my current position, I have NO business with a Blackberry.
Verizon says: “You signed a contract and we can’t let you out for free” .

They don’t care that I am living below the poverty level or that I don’t even pay income tax last year because my total worth was $810.00.

I don’t even have anything of value that I own or lease. No car, no home, nothing but a damn Blackberry.

Do they want me to steal some phones from their store and get the $650 that way to get out of my contract??

They don’t care, they want their money but I have news for Verizon, my bills wont be paid in dollars anymore. They’ll have to sell the items of value I can get ahold of for their stupid contract.

alice,
Let me enlighten you to why companies go from Unlimited to tiered plans so you dont sound so nitwitted to the people who actually work in the industry not just play with the newest toy there Daddy bought for her…
Get your facts straight, AT&T’s overages are not “HUGE” and you $15 a month if you want to us a little (or more). I would not say’s that’s A&T& robbing anyone. In fact, on either data plan, AT&T alerts you 3 separate times via text and tells the customer they are approching their data limit. If they really wanted to OVERCHARGE their customers, they wouldn’t have those alerts. And if the customer passes the limit they are charged either $10 for another gig, or $$15 for 200 more megs. Yeah, really outrageous prices. Just stay on your mommy’s VZW family plan where she pays the bills anyway, quit your complaining and worry about Monday’s Math Test and that zit on your nose.

If they were to throttle me back I would find another provider. We already pay a premium for mobile Internet.

Top 5% eh? Is that the top 5% of the overall VZW customers or the top 5% on a particular tower? Pretty vague to me and smells like VZW just gave themselves a free pass for their shenanigans.

Ok, let’s just be for real people. Each and EVERY network has it’s faults and when it boils down to it you’re choosing the lesser of a few evils for YOUR needs: Which demon company has the less vicious smile to you? LOL! If you are a business person who travels outside of the US a lot, need to be able to simultaneously use voice and data, and are not living in western US then you should choose AT&T. If you’re looking for a great device that will allow you the options of extras with a proven network that’s reliable for the main purpose of a cell phone (to make calls) and you’re wanting better choices in devices and warranty options for those devices with more hands on customer care then you want Verizon. If you don’t travel much, happen to be in a coverage area, want a few limited options of smartphones that are decent then go with Sprint because their prices match what they offer. If you want great customer service, a somewhat decent array of devices to choose from, good data speeds and an overall mediocre calling area to choose from then go with TMobile. If you want a brick that calls people then go with some prepaid service that has coverage in your area cause you’re going to pay for what you get. I mean basically people need to understand something above all else: It’s not perfect. We’ve come a long way from bag phones but it’s still radio waves people and it’s not perfect, if you want perfect then the closest you’re going to get is a satellite phone that uses satellites and towers and I can still tell you it’s not going to be perfect. People think that because it’s an IPhone, or a Blackberry or whatever that it’s supposed to be perfect due to the hype but it’s not man, it’s just a phone. It’s just another piece of technology and you’re gambling. Why don’t people stop blaming just the networks too? I mean have you ever stopped to think about the manufacturer’s as well? I mean that’s the people who are actually MAKING the phone, the network is just the provider who gives you the option to get the phone at a discount if you sign a contract saying you will stay with them for 2 years just because they offer them/sell them don’t mean you should run crying to them every time you have an issue, unless it’s ongoing for an extended period then complain but need to realize you don’t do it to other services. If you come home and try to turn your tv on and it don’t come on (power wise) do you call the cable company? Heck no you don’t, guess what you’re tv is broke, cable company just gives you cable. If you go to Walmart and buy something like a Garmin or a shotgun or tires and you don’t get the protection plan or you got it and it’s out of warranty and it stops working, what do you do? I just don’t get people sometimes man, it’s like they expect their phones to wash their clothes, pay the bills without needing info, and drive their cars and then when you ask them if they dropped it they say “Well of course I have, I mean everyone has dropped their phone at some point”….If you dropped your laptop and it quit working would you expect dell to replace that computer free of charge? If you do then you’re crazy.
Bottom line? Companies are going to do what companies are going to do because it’s a business and they are not here to be our friends, they are providing us a service and we have to pay for it. They set the price because they want to make money just like all other businesses and if we get lucky and find exactly what we need for cheap then go us, but if not don’t complain because you don’t have to have that IPhone, that Blackberry or that Android phone to live people, it’s a luxury and sometimes luxuries are imperfect…like stolen diamonds from Africa.

I can understand wanting to manage network usage, but this is a remarkably ham fisted way of doing it. If a tech writer wants a good story, they should call up Robert Frankston, one of the two VisiCalc guys. He worked for a computer “utility” and did a lot of work at MIT and elsewhere on pricing and managing computer services. He wrote a number of “governors”, programs to manage system load by giving users a fair share of resources, slowing down heavy users. This was done on a minute by minute scale, so that one was rarely aware of being throttled. Instead, one had an expected speed that was reliably delivered, though this speed might vary by time of day or other conditions. Surely, a modern high technology company can design a car that has more than two settings, 60mph and slammed to a halt.