[Breaking]Verizon Plans to Slow Downloads of High Data Users Because of iPhone Launch

[huskerkate]

People, it would be nice to think past the iPhone animosity a little. Is timing incidental with the iPhone coming online? Yup. Is it also incidental with a bug push on 4G phones about to be dropped out of the chute? Oh wait, yeah, that is coming up, isn't it? Gee, might also be an attempt to push more users to 4G. And hey, haven't Android sales been off the chart and more devices coming out at extremely rapid rates? Ummm, yeah, and they use the same data lines as the iPhone.

People, drop the conspiracy theories. Does this possibly have something to do with the iPhone? Probably. But I would more bet it is a combination of ALL of the factors I listed above.

To deny otherwise is ludicrous.

for me, i have no animosity toward the iPhone (at least not in relation to this particular issue). my objection lies with VZW.

 

[Stelv]

Not saying I am doing this just yet but...Does anyone know how to go about canceling a contract with Verizon and going somewhere else. One would have to pay VZWs early termination fee of $350 right? The new cell phone provider (say Sprint or AT&T) wouldn't cover some of that ETF cost right?

 

[jkhonea]

for me, i have no animosity toward the iPhone (at least not in relation to this particular issue). my objection lies with VZW.

Sorry husker, I realized it looked like I was singling you out with my statement. Didn't mean to do that. I meant that more for the other people that simply are grabbing straws with the iPhone argument.

And I agree with you. It looks like VZW is suddenly thinking its a smart time to flex their muscles. They may regret that when it is all said and done.

 

[Beardface]

Yeeeeaaaah... Just chalk this whole thing up to another reason why I am leaning heavily toward dumping Verizon and going to Sprint. The Sprint network might suck nationwide, but its good in my area, and the 4G network out here is actually fast. But there have been a lot of things that Verizon has done over the past couple months that I don't think I can forgive, the least of which is bringing on the iPhone. I mean, lets just go over the ones recently...

1. Working with Motorola to lock down every new handset
2. Shrinking the return timeframe for defective or unwanted devices
3. Eliminating the Rebate Progam
4. Jacking up the price of Data Plans for LTE users
5. Throttling the Data usage of the Top 5% of data plans (roughly 1 in 5 smartphone users... excluding iPhone users)

And these are just the ones that I can think of off the top of my head. And not only this, but they are now going to consider all the Android users, who single handedly brought Verizon to competing eye to eye with Apple, as second-rate customers who don't deserve the same respect as their Apple counterparts. Sorry, this is just pathetic. I'm very close to just breaking contract and moving over, especially with how ridiculously slow the 3G network will be when the iPhone goes on sale (I know for a fact from VZW service agents that the system just cannot handle whats about to happen) to how much LTE will be bogged down when the iPhone goes on sale through them, that its just not going to be worth it anymore. Has nothing to do with Android, it has everything to do with being treated like a second class citizen by a company I've been loyal to for the last decade.

Where there is smoke, there is fire, and there has been a whole ton of smoke blowing from the Verizon HQ in recent months. They are as bad as Apple, and now they're in bed together. Screw them.

 

[huskerkate]

Its simple marketing guys, if you deal with a company on a regular basis and they want to keep you as a customer they're not going to treat you like crap. It's called relationship marketing, look it up.

maybe this should be directed toward VZW?? the "policy changes" VZW has made in just the last couple of months: NE2, unlimited data plans, shorter return period, throttling data. seems to be more "anti-relationship marketing." and we're just supposed to swallow it, smile, and say "thank you sir, may i have another"...

No one is saying that. But I think we are looking at a combination of factors all hitting at once. Everyone is quick to throw the book at the iPhone release when there are, in fact, many, MANY other things coming down the line at the exact same time. The increased Android sales with their handsets easily costing as much as the iPhone has got to be coming into play as well. There is no way they would have kept how they were doing business, iPhone coming or not. I can promise that right now.

again, i'm not throwing this all on the iPhone. for me, it comes down to what i'm getting for what i'm paying. maybe i'm misinterpreting what VZW is doing, but right now it seems the message it is sending is that i will be getting less, but paying more for it (kinda like that TMo commercial).

 

[czerdrill]

to me, this is just indefensible on VZW's part. regardless of which number of users calculation you accept (whether czerdrill or UNC's), the analysis is the same: Did you pay $200/$300/more to VZW for a phone? Yes. Did you sign a contract with VZW? Yes. Did that contract provide for unlimited data? Yes. Have you paid $200 a month for the past X years (like i have)? Yes.

but now, VZW can choose to unilaterally alter the terms of the agreement, solely to accomodate potential VZW customers who are not under contract, and who have not yet paid VZW a single penny?! is VZW going to correspondingly "throttle" back the bills it sends to its affected customers?! under no reasonable definition do i find this to be "acceptable" or "understandable".

if i told my existing clients, who i am under contract to serve and who regularly pay me, that i will be providing them less service than i originally agreed (and for what i've been paid) because i have a really big potential client that i am trying to bring on board, would anyone find that appropriate??

that's not what's happening though. why do people fail to see this? you are 100% correct, they can't just change your contract out of the blue like that. and that's not what theyre doing. for all intents and purposes you have unlimited data. this month you can use 1MB and next month you can use 125GB if you wanted. You'd still pay $29.99 for unlimited data. Verizon can't just charge you overages for using more data then what they want you to use.

here's what they can do, and what they are doing. The contract clearly states that they can, at any time, for any reason throttle your data. does that completely suck? yes it does. is there anything that can be done about it? no, there's not. the contract that was agreed to didn't mislead the user and say "you will unequivocally have unlimited data, unlimited speeds, and the ability to use our network for whatever you see fit"...there was no data guarantee, no speed guarantee and no other guarantees in the contract except what i mentioned above.

you have unlimited data. but verizon can throttle your data whenever they want however they want for whatever reason they want.

and i think its foolish for anyone (not talking about you husker, just quoted you) to think that 50% of smartphone users are going to be throttled. how do people not realize how utterly ridiculous that sounds?

verizon, in their own corporate boardroom somewhere will set a threshold that they consider "extraordinary" usage. they will make the customer aware of this. if a customer goes over that usage, the top 5% who go over will be throttled. i mean it's spelled clear as day in that article, and everyone here is going crazy about it. and guess what? they are also allowed to do this because of the contract that everyone signed. it's in there. in black and white. ignorance of that fact is not an excuse.

90% of the people here will probably not even be affected. and it'll be 5% of the 10% that are left who get hurt by this. a very, very, very small amount. and yes...if an iphone user is in that 5% they will be throttled. you've gotta be kidding me if you think verizon is going to give free reign of their network to you just because you have an iphone and punish you if you dont...

 

[huskerkate]

for me, i have no animosity toward the iPhone (at least not in relation to this particular issue). my objection lies with VZW.

Sorry husker, I realized it looked like I was singling you out with my statement. Didn't mean to do that. I meant that more for the other people that simply are grabbing straws with the iPhone argument.

And I agree with you. It looks like VZW is suddenly thinking its a smart time to flex their muscles. They may regret that when it is all said and done.

no worries! i didn't feel singled out - i just wanted to make sure my comments weren't misinterpreted as "iPhone bashing." right now i just want to bash VZW.

 

[UNC]

I'm going to say it again, I highly doubt the iphone will be throttled. They need it to be faster than the android devices because its so easy to compare the speeds of AT&T vs Verizon on the iphone... they are steering android users towards 4g to try and free up 3g for iPhone. Its not a conspiracy, it just makes sense..

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

 

[huskerkate]

[
here's what they can do, and what they are doing. The contract clearly states that they can, at any time, for any reason throttle your data. does that completely suck? yes it does. is there anything that can be done about it? no, there's not. the contract that was agreed to didn't mislead the user and say "you will unequivocally have unlimited data, unlimited speeds, and the ability to use our network for whatever you see fit"...there was no data guarantee, no speed guarantee and no other guarantees in the contract except what i mentioned above.

you have unlimited data. but verizon can throttle your data whenever they want however they want for whatever reason they want.

i agree with you to a point. you say there is no guarantee as to speed, but that may not be entirely correct. VZW represented, offered, and sold service on a 3g network. if (and this is purely an IF, since we don't know the effect yet) the throttling results in speeds less than what 3g is capable of, then it seems to me that VZW is putting itself in an untenable policy position. similarly, your statement that VZW can throttle for any reason at any time, is not correct. in contracts of adhesion (where one party is clearly in a dominant bargaining position, and largely imposes the contract terms on the other party), the dominant party cannot exercise reserved discretion as it wants. if the exercise of that discretion deprives the other party of the reasonable expectations of their bargain, then it is impermissible. imo, what VZW is doing is coming awful close (if not past) that line.

 

[jaycemiskel]

26% of Verizon's 95 million customers are smartphone users. Assuming the top 5% are all smart phone users, that's 1 in 5 that will get throttled if they choose to implement this plan as stated.


26% stat comes from Jan. 2011 Why The Verizon iPhone Is Going To Be Huge: Only 26% Of Verizon Subscribers Have Smartphones

Ok, seriously, let's do the math. That's 1 in 20. For every 100 people there will be 5 that are throttled. That comes down to 1 in 20. Ok, math lesson over lol. Anyway, I'm not sure we should harbor ill feelings toward the iPhone. I think they'll throttle iPhone users too. Here's the deal though, studies have shown that we use more data than iPhone users. There will be a lot less people with iPhones in the top 5% so most iPhone users won't have any problems. If 98% of At&t users used less than 2gb it's probably pretty similar for Verizon. More than likely the cutoff will probably be around 2 or 3 gb. Sure, we don't think that's extraordinary but compared to everyone else it is. 10x more than what 68% of users use is technically extraordinary. Their PR team worded it like there for a reason. So there wouldn't be a large outcry. Everyone is like, well I don't use extraordinary amounts of data but we're not the norm. I don't think it will be that bad, but more than 2 or 3 gigs will probably get throttled. Just my opinion.

 

[UNC]

to me, this is just indefensible on VZW's part. regardless of which number of users calculation you accept (whether czerdrill or UNC's), the analysis is the same: Did you pay $200/$300/more to VZW for a phone? Yes. Did you sign a contract with VZW? Yes. Did that contract provide for unlimited data? Yes. Have you paid $200 a month for the past X years (like i have)? Yes.

but now, VZW can choose to unilaterally alter the terms of the agreement, solely to accomodate potential VZW customers who are not under contract, and who have not yet paid VZW a single penny?! is VZW going to correspondingly "throttle" back the bills it sends to its affected customers?! under no reasonable definition do i find this to be "acceptable" or "understandable".

if i told my existing clients, who i am under contract to serve and who regularly pay me, that i will be providing them less service than i originally agreed (and for what i've been paid) because i have a really big potential client that i am trying to bring on board, would anyone find that appropriate??

that's not what's happening though. why do people fail to see this? you are 100% correct, they can't just change your contract out of the blue like that. and that's not what theyre doing. for all intents and purposes you have unlimited data. this month you can use 1MB and next month you can use 125GB if you wanted. You'd still pay $29.99 for unlimited data. Verizon can't just charge you overages for using more data then what they want you to use.

here's what they can do, and what they are doing. The contract clearly states that they can, at any time, for any reason throttle your data. does that completely suck? yes it does. is there anything that can be done about it? no, there's not. the contract that was agreed to didn't mislead the user and say "you will unequivocally have unlimited data, unlimited speeds, and the ability to use our network for whatever you see fit"...there was no data guarantee, no speed guarantee and no other guarantees in the contract except what i mentioned above.

you have unlimited data. but verizon can throttle your data whenever they want however they want for whatever reason they want.

and i think its foolish for anyone (not talking about you husker, just quoted you) to think that 50% of smartphone users are going to be throttled. how do people not realize how utterly ridiculous that sounds?

verizon, in their own corporate boardroom somewhere will set a threshold that they consider "extraordinary" usage. they will make the customer aware of this. if a customer goes over that usage, the top 5% who go over will be throttled. i mean it's spelled clear as day in that article, and everyone here is going crazy about it. and guess what? they are also allowed to do this because of the contract that everyone signed. it's in there. in black and white. ignorance of that fact is not an excuse.

90% of the people here will probably not even be affected. and it'll be 5% of the 10% that are left who get hurt by this. a very, very, very small amount. and yes...if an iphone user is in that 5% they will be throttled. you've gotta be kidding me if you think verizon is going to give free reign of their network to you just because you have an iphone and punish you if you dont...

You can't call out people for not reading their contract, and then not read the article we are talking about.

Someone corrected me, 26% of vzw is smartphones... so, let's do some rough math. 5% of 95 million is 4+ million. 26% of 95 million is ~23 million. So basically 20-30% of ALL smartphone users are in the top 5% of all verizon data usage... I imagine the people of this website use more bandwidth than the average smartphone consumer. So, upwards of 50% of this forum is going to be throttled. To say otherwise is to ignore the facts...

Men lie and women lie, but numbers NEVER lie.

 

[huskerkate]

eh, on second thought, i'll just leave it at "awful close to that line".

 

[eewny]

Do our contracts actually say 5gb because I think people have been over this aa number of times and vzw droid unlimited is unlimited. If they throttle me for 5 gb to 10 gb worth of data that is rediculous. I use ny phone I shoyldnt be punished because im using what I paid for just because alot of people get unlimited when they dont need it.

If they throttle people for using 5 gbs then people should make an effort to use 10. Its pretty easy to surpassed that if your using your phone like a pc(which it is) and not just getting unlimited so you can check urban spoon twice a week.

Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums App

 

[jkhonea]

UNC, I will tell you now, without any doubt in my mind, any iPhone users that use excessive bandwidth over the new threshold WILL be throttled, just as the rest of the data users that are in excess. I will promise you that right here and now.

 

[kodiak799]

ohhhhh the humanity!