Earlier today, news broke that Verizon will begin to throttle LTE data, otherwise known as slowing down service. A few of the other national carriers, along with Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile already practice this. While Verizon has not officially offered Unlimited Data for quite some time, many customers are grandfathered in and the ways of keeping this plan have gotten harder and harder, usually it means buying your smartphone off contract. Currently, Verizon used their “Network Optimization” policies on their 3G plans, but today we have gotten confirmation that it will be moving this practice to their 4G LTE network as well. You can see the full statement and comment from Verizon, below.
Verizon Wireless strives to provide customers the best wireless experience. Our network is a popular, shared resource serving millions of customers.
If a customer on a 4G LTE device on an unlimited data plan has fulfilled his minimum contract term and falls within the top 5% of data users, we may reduce that customer’s data throughput speeds if that customer connects to a cell site that is experiencing high demand to ensure high-quality network performance for the vast majority of data customers. This Network Optimization protocol will apply to affected customers for the bill cycle during which they exceed the threshold, and the bill cycle that immediately follows.
Our proactive management of the Verizon Wireless network is designed to ensure that the vast majority of data customers aren’t negatively affected by the excessive data consumption of just a few users.
– Andrew Testa, PR Manager, New York Metro Region, Verizon Wireless
From what I can tell, most users will not be seeing slower speeds. If you have a 4G LTE smartphone on an unlimited plan, your data usage is in the top 5%, and you’re a month to month customer, meaning that you’ve fulfilled your contract term. If you meet all of these things, you will see reduced data speed if the network is experience high demand. This will apply both to current bill cycle which they went over the threshold, and the bill cycle following this. Most customers won’t be meeting these it appears, which is a good thing. The policy itself is not very straightforward, as you will only be throttled in very busy areas, where the network is under a lot of pressure. This new “Network Optimization” policy for 4G LTE won’t start until October 1st 2014.
