by Karl Bode
With the company's focus now primarily on wireless and slinging ads to Millennials, Verizon's long-neglected DSL customers were already feeling unwanted in the wake of frozen FiOS fiber upgrades. In many areas, Verizon has simply refused to upgrade or repair lines, and frequently hits these users with annoying price hikes on slow DSL speeds that cost Verizon very little to actually deliver. The goal quite literally is to drive these unwanted customers to cable competitors or the company's own wireless service (often sold by those same cable competitors).
Now these unwanted Verizon DSL customers may have another reason to leave: potential usage caps.
Users in our forums recently discovered that Verizon has begun conducting a new "trial" in Virginia. As part of this trial, customers on DSL lines at speeds of 500 kbps to 1.5 Mbps are now informed "usage" is limited to 150 gigabytes. Users on DSL speeds between 1.5 Mbps and 3 Mbps are now told those lines only feature 250 GB of "usage."