Verizon Wireless Throttling Unlimited 4G Data Hogs

[thundervore]

Wow, its like these cellphone carriers are competing to see who could piss off their customers the fastest just to see who would remain loyal.

First they make us pay for data on a smartphone even if we do not use their data. (free WIFI at work, your own WIFI at home and if your a Cable subscriber there are free WIFI hotspots throughout the cities.)

Now they want to throttle those with unlimited data?

How about fair data rates!!! Why is it a company can charge $30 for a 3GB monthly data plan but at the same time charge $20 for 300MB a month data plan. If you convert the numbers, its 3072MB for $30 or 300MB for $20. An extra $10 should not give you 2772MB of extra data!!!

I do not see a problem with charging per gigabyte. As I said earlier, data uses a quantifiable amount of energy and energy cost money. Do you think paying per kW/h at your home is unfair? Do you think paying per gallon of gas for your car is unfair? Do you think paying per gallon of water you use at home is unfair? Why should bandwidth be any different? It uses energy, so you should pay per unit of energy used.

I do agree that their data rate prices are ridiculous. However, have you ever considered that their prices are ridiculous because you are footing the bill for high bandwidth users?

The difference is that electricity, gas, and water is all based on usage and not a fixed price. It is metered rates and customers pay depending on how much they use. The person who refuses to fix their leaking toilet and lets it runs all night will have a higher water bill that the person who invokes the rule of "we only flush when we poop". Same with gas, the person who must have that V6 that only takes premium gas will spend more at the pump to go the same distance as a fuel saving car like a hybrid. Electricity also, the person that leaves their lights on when no one is home or choose to have leave the TV on while they sleep will have a higher energy bill than the person that installs timers on the outlets.

But with data, its a fixed rate weather customers use all their bandwidth or not. Right now I am forced to pay $20 a month for 300MB just because I use a smart phone, and I do not use any of it because I have WIFI in the office at work, WIFI at home and hotspots throughout the city from my cable company. The only time I do not have data is when I am on the subway where I cannot get reception. Honestly, when I look at my usage details in my phone I use about 5GB a month and this is all pure WIFI, none of it is mobile data that goes through my carrier. Customers like me should not have to bear the burden for the person who decides to stream Netflix at the gym while they are on the treadmill when they could have saved their show/movie locally and watch it, or want to jog outside with Pandora when they could have purchased the songs they want to listen to instead of streaming.

What is needed is a $/ per GB cost in effect, this way heavy customers will pay their fair share if they hog the bandwidth and customers who do not use that much pay less.

 

[WyomingKnott]

I admit that my mind works in strange way. The article's title had me picturing Verizon employees with their hands squeezing the throats of numerous swine.

 

[vipboy28]

I have never seen people so ignorant on here in my entire life. 10tacle im not sure how you got entitlement out of that but you sir are very blinded. First, when you sign with Verizon and pay money for a service, your expected to get that service. For a company to then apply restrictions and alter agreements is illegal and extremely unprofessional. Teleco companies do very very very good year after year with ROI's and their actual cash in hand profit, they need to upgrade infrastructure and keep up with demand. instead of doing this, they choose to pillage people for more money. I am talking to a lawyer to see if we can sue them. Its completely unfair. You dont get that, 1 HD video on your smart phone can put you over your monthly allotment.

With that said, people shouldn't be using torrents or downloading massive files in the 100's of gigabytes. That said the top 5% of people dont use as little as 4.7gbs a month, people who do anything other than facebook scroll and check emails use under that amount. Those of us who actually use a smartphone like how its suppose to be used, GPS, web, occasional video watching, music use around 4-6 gigs. So if the masses use between 4-6gigs and verizons cut off is 4.7gb. They not only throttle 98% of their network but they get away with the BEST scheme ever.

So entitlement has nothing to do with me paying for a service, not getting the complete service and then getting restricted access to said service. Open your eyes.

FYI, I would open up my own wireless network, however Verizon would probably sue me and tie me up in court for years. This is the type of company we are dealing with. Sorry, I cant rob the state of NJ with Tax breaks and utility breaks like Verizon did.

 

[vipboy28]

Wow, its like these cellphone carriers are competing to see who could piss off their customers the fastest just to see who would remain loyal.

First they make us pay for data on a smartphone even if we do not use their data. (free WIFI at work, your own WIFI at home and if your a Cable subscriber there are free WIFI hotspots throughout the cities.)

Now they want to throttle those with unlimited data?

How about fair data rates!!! Why is it a company can charge $30 for a 3GB monthly data plan but at the same time charge $20 for 300MB a month data plan. If you convert the numbers, its 3072MB for $30 or 300MB for $20. An extra $10 should not give you 2772MB of extra data!!!

I do not see a problem with charging per gigabyte. As I said earlier, data uses a quantifiable amount of energy and energy cost money. Do you think paying per kW/h at your home is unfair? Do you think paying per gallon of gas for your car is unfair? Do you think paying per gallon of water you use at home is unfair? Why should bandwidth be any different? It uses energy, so you should pay per unit of energy used.

I do agree that their data rate prices are ridiculous. However, have you ever considered that their prices are ridiculous because you are footing the bill for high bandwidth users?

The difference is that electricity, gas, and water is all based on usage and not a fixed price. It is metered rates and customers pay depending on how much they use. The person who refuses to fix their leaking toilet and lets it runs all night will have a higher water bill that the person who invokes the rule of "we only flush when we poop". Same with gas, the person who must have that V6 that only takes premium gas will spend more at the pump to go the same distance as a fuel saving car like a hybrid. Electricity also, the person that leaves their lights on when no one is home or choose to have leave the TV on while they sleep will have a higher energy bill than the person that installs timers on the outlets.

But with data, its a fixed rate weather customers use all their bandwidth or not. Right now I am forced to pay $20 a month for 300MB just because I use a smart phone, and I do not use any of it because I have WIFI in the office at work, WIFI at home and hotspots throughout the city from my cable company. The only time I do not have data is when I am on the subway where I cannot get reception. Honestly, when I look at my usage details in my phone I use about 5GB a month and this is all pure WIFI, none of it is mobile data that goes through my carrier. Customers like me should not have to bear the burden for the person who decides to stream Netflix at the gym while they are on the treadmill when they could have saved their show/movie locally and watch it, or want to jog outside with Pandora when they could have purchased the songs they want to listen to instead of streaming.

What is needed is a $/ per GB cost in effect, this way heavy customers will pay their fair share if they hog the bandwidth and customers who do not use that much pay less.

I 100% aggree with this! However if they did this pay per g/b the company wouldn't have record profits year after year.

 

[FrodoSwaggins]

I'm one of the few still holding on to my unlimited. This is just another way to make more money, plain and simple. Rather than invest into their network, they'd rather cut your service, charge you more, and make it seem like they're doing you a favor. It's absolutely ridiculous that we're letting the service providers get away with this. It's not just the phone providers either, comcast and the likes putting datacaps in place. What a joke.

Why would they invest in their infrastructure when the infrastructure is more than sufficient if data hogs are throttled? You do realize that data is not free and network towers do not grow on trees. Every byte of data uses a quantifiable amount of energy and energy cost money. So are you saying they should just continue to give people more bandwidth and lose money?

Lose money? They are already offering terrible services for huge amounts of money. If anything, they are making more money.
I can't understand how could someone not want internet providers to offer better services, and faster speeds with such a dumb excuse. I can't wait for the day that Google Fiber finally spreads all over the country, making lousy companies like Comcast and TWC offer better and cheaper services. They have the money to improve the infrastructure, they just prefer to not do that and instead they take advantage of their customers. And what can we do? NOTHING because in most places you are only given the option to choose between 2 ISPs, and both are usually terrible. And with Internet being a necessity rather than a luxury, you must put up with this.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Ladies, Gentlemen, and assorted fellow Forum members (you may belong to more than one category, before anyone takes offense)

A brief reminder of the forum rules, available in a sticky post at the top of any subforum (like http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2083498/read-forum-rules-styling-posts.html ) is needed.

Please don't • Be rude or impolite. Civility is essential on Tom's, and remember that behind each user is a real person. Personal attacks (ad hominem) and insults are not allowed.

I'm aware that there are many different opinions on data throttling. I happen to have three different opinions myself, one based on what I want, one based basic economics, and one based on my understanding of current regulation. Let's discuss them with tolerance for each other from now on, please.

I have already spent to much time removing insults, cusswords, and references to obvious violations of the law from this thread.

 

[alidan]

this month alone, on my land line, i have used 489,498.15 MB
granted this has been a very slow month for me, usually i'm up around 2tb and one months when recovering from a hdd failure i was around 10tb.

and people want to push for 4k video hard... yea... once the internet is out of the hands of people who want to throttle.