Verizon backs off throttling unlimited customer, after it no longer matters [telecom]

In July of 2011, Verizon announced it would no longer offer its wireless users unlimited data plans, and instead began pushing more expensive and capped shared data plans (complete with shiny $15 per gigabyte overage fees!). While Verizon did grandfather existing unlimited customers, like AT&T, it immediately began waging a quiet war on these users, throttling these purportedly "unlimited" connections to try and drive these users toward pricier metered options.

In Verizon's case, the company started by throttling unlimited customers on its 3G network. When Verizon Wireless announced in 2014 it was going to start applying these "network optimization" practices to its LTE 4G network, the company received a surprise wrist slap by FCC boss Tom Wheeler, who warned the company that he saw through its use of congestion to drive revenue:

"Reasonable network management" concerns the technical management of your network; it is not a loophole designed to enhance your revenue streams. It is disturbing to me that Verizon Wireless would base its "network management" on distinctions among its customers' data plans, rather than on network architecture or technology."

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+--------------------------------------------------------------+ Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)

***** Moderator's Note *****

Rearranging the deck chairs on Bell Titanic department:

Why do I get the feeling that Verizon executives are hiding several straw men behind a curtain? It seems that the company, bloated and stagnant after more than a century of monopoly profit and inept management, is serving de facto notice that it intends to keep squeezing everyone that uses "their" wires to get from point a to pointless.

Of course, dedicated virtual circuits are already planned for transition to VoIP and "best effort, least cost, highest profit" status AFAICT, but the executives' skyscraper-high salaries will suffer no such degradation.

Bill Horne Moderator

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