Slow data speeds after change to unlimited plan

[stef7]

Go Unlimited gives you all the data you'll ever need at a better value. Enjoy unlimited data, voice and text each month.

With Go Unlimited you get:

• Unlimited 4G LTE data*
• Unlimited Talk & Text
• DVD-quality streaming (480p)
• Unlimited Mobile hotspot (600 Kbps)
• Verizon Up rewards

Go Unlimited is perfect for those who:

• Browse the internet and check email
• Stream video sometimes and don't mind if it's not HD
• Use mobile hotspot occasionally and don't need 4G speeds for it
• Aren't using a Jetpack, Netbook or notebook
• Rarely or never call or visit Canada or Mexico

*In times of congestion, your data may be temporarily slower than other traffic.

All

[Bondtoo7]

Hi Lynn,

I am experiencing the slow speeds and poor voice quality through out my day.

• I start making calls around 06:30 each day and continue making calls through 21:00- 22:00. Anytime during this time frame I have experienced poor quality.
• These calls are made from both indoor and outdoor locations, there is no change regardless of my location.

I could understand if under my previous plan I was experiencing similar problems, BUT I find it absolutely unacceptable to "upgrade" to unlimited only to find out that the service is drastically inferior to what I had previous....FROM THE SAME PROVIDER.

In regards to prioritization, the total amount of utilization of data between my wife and me during our current billing period is 2.95GB. I was under the impression per the store rep that we would not encounter a 're-prioritization' until we hit 22GB during a billing period.

Verizon needs to do a better job of providing what expected service levels would look like for a customer (in their particular area of service) based on the plan they have and what they are considering to go to.

i.e. "Towers in your area are currently at 90% capacity, by switching to the Unlimited plan from your current 8GB plan you should expect to see speeds and performance drop by 'X%'."

As it stands right now, it is a total craps shoot for the customer. "Do I stay in my current plan and potentially pay overage fees or do I 'upgrade' my data package for a potential reduction in service?"

What I would like to know are the following:

1. What does Verizon consider peak usage hours for the area in which I reside?
2. What is the current load on towers in my area? Remaining Capacity on towers in my area?
3. When I have been "re-prioritized", which to my understanding wasn't the case until I hit 22GB of data during my current billing period, what service level should I expect?

[stef7]

All the data you'll ever need is not possible at 0.5Mbps.

I don't think DVD-quality (480p) streaming is possible at 0.5Mbps.

It might be practically impossible to browse the web, or check email at 0.5Mbps.

A mobile hotspot at "upto" 0.6Mbps? Note the "upto".

What constitutes "congestion"? How is it measured / determined?  How would the customer have known the towers he/she would use were considered "congested" at practically all times? And isn't VZW able to manipulate resources like bandwidth / frequency band / antenna coverage / strength, such that before switching, performance is good, but then when switching over the performance one day becomes terrible?

I think VZW should let people switch back to the plans they had if it was a limited plan. The whole "Unlimited" theme is symantically ambiguous. Prioritization is throttling.

[rcschnoor]

Bondtoo7 wrote:

The basis for this expectation is that I am not referring to using my phone as a hotspot, I never use my phone as a hotspot. This is strictly just standard phone use. If I am paying $9 MORE per month for a service, I should not expect to see a 98.07% decrease in my service's speed, even at peak hours of usage.

The below test was done at 23:20, not a peak hour of usage.

When the details of the gounlimited plan clearly state your data may be re-prioritized at ANY time when on a tower with high traffic, that is not a very good expectation.

You may THINK that 23:20 is not be a "peak hour of usage", but whenever my daughters are at home streaming movies/youtube/music until 2AM on their devices, I don't know if I would agree. Not everyone has the same schedule and their "peak" hours of usage may differ from yours.

What were you doing at that hour and why do you think others were not performing similar tasks at the same time?

Possibly you should try the beyondunlimited tier of unlimited data to determine if you see the same slowdown of your data. You can always switch back at any time.

[rcschnoor]

stef7 wrote:

Go Unlimited gives you all the data you'll ever need at a better value. Enjoy unlimited data, voice and text each month.

With Go Unlimited you get:

• Unlimited 4G LTE data*
• Unlimited Talk & Text
• DVD-quality streaming (480p)
• Unlimited Mobile hotspot (600 Kbps)
• Verizon Up rewards

Go Unlimited is perfect for those who:

• Browse the internet and check email
• Stream video sometimes and don't mind if it's not HD
• Use mobile hotspot occasionally and don't need 4G speeds for it
• Aren't using a Jetpack, Netbook or notebook
• Rarely or never call or visit Canada or Mexico

*In times of congestion, your data may be temporarily slower than other traffic.

All

Yes, I am aware of the restrictions placed upon gounlimited. That is why I chose to subscribe to beyondunlimited.

[rcschnoor]

Bondtoo7 wrote:

In regards to prioritization, the total amount of utilization of data between my wife and me during our current billing period is 2.95GB. I was under the impression per the store rep that we would not encounter a 're-prioritization' until we hit 22GB during a billing period.

This is not the case with the gounlimited tier of unlimited data on Verizon, only the beyondunlimited tier of unlimited data.

[rcschnoor]

stef7 wrote:

All the data you'll ever need is not possible at 0.5Mbps.

I don't think DVD-quality (480p) streaming is possible at 0.5Mbps.

It might be practically impossible to browse the web, or check email at 0.5Mbps.

And it is also possible data speed would increase above 0.5 Mbps when re-prioritization was not in effect, HOWEVER that is one of the details one must consider when choosing gounlimited over beyondunlimited.

Speaking as one who started browsing the web and checking email with a dialup modem limited to 0.014 Mbps, increasing the speed when available until finally upgrading to a cable modem, I can tell you it IS NOT impossible to browse the web and check email at that speed. It may be unpleasant, but not impossible. 0.5 Mbps is 10x the speed of my last dialup modem which had a speed of 0.056 Mbps.

[stef7]

While you make excellent points, you realize that web-content is very graphics intensive and today's web-pages are nothing like those found on the web of the early 90s.

I'm pretty old school myself. I remember dial-up modems that had rubberized acoustic couplers for phone handsets. I remember mag tape, punched cards, and punched paper tape for storage. I programmed with bat switches and plug-boards.

Ah the sound of the teletype resonates.

I propose to you, the people complaining about "go unlimited" really weren't provided with sufficient details when they signed up. I believe many factors are involved here

1). the people pitching the flavors of "unlimited", didn't really understand the plans well enough to explain them properly. Some still don't.

2). the marketing words have grossly compromised meaning, even an engineer cannot deduce what unlimited, congestion, prioritized really means.

3). There are some tools and some reference material that help a class of educated people deduce what *may* be happening to their coverage and speed, but the carriers are understandably not providing specifics. There are no tools that I know of that help the consumer assess "congestion", which can be just about anything based on the carriers metrics.

4). It may very well be that the prioritizing of communication via the cellular network is being refined. I bet the poster finds his data speeds throttled even well after 0:00. Maybe he/she should perform the test again at 3:35am in the morning. My daughter keeps vampire hours, but seriously - how do you expect someone to effectively use bandwidth at that hour?

5). People have prior experience with service and unlimited plans. The plans - did they change underneath them? Were they led to believe their plans supported a certain performance, only to find that performance changed?

6). I think the communication of the details of these plans has improved over time. Were the differences spelled out clearly when they were first introduced as they tend to be now?

7). There are a few more I can think of, but I hope you got this far, and may concede it's not really that simple for your average consumer (that doesn't know the difference between a system cache and an application cache and should not have to) to develop an accurate mental model of what is going on, what to expect, what plan is best for them. BTW, I'm partial to the number seven so I'll stop.

Wait, I like the unwritten number (8); besides the language of the "go unlimted" FAQs containing ambiguous terminology, there are also some interesting key words that further complicate matters like "temporarily" and "upto" which would really confuse and help the customer develop inappropriate expectations for service.

Fair / unfair?

[rcschnoor]

stef7 wrote:

I propose to you, the people complaining about "go unlimited" really weren't provided with sufficient details when they signed up. Nor were they interested in reading the readily available information. They saw 2 prices for unlimited and JUMPED at the lower price. There is a REASON the price is lower. The higer priced unlimited plan has better features which include less throttling and prioritization, HOWEVER the headlines indicate the lower priced plan COST LESS and that is all that matters.

I believe many factors are involved here

1). the people pitching the flavors of "unlimited", didn't really understand the plans well enough to explain them properly. Some still don't. That can be said for MANY VZW salespeople for most of their products. I've always thought I was better informed than ALL VZW salespeople simply by reading the information available on their website. Many others on these forums are equally informed because they ALSO read the readily available information. I have NEVER had a VZW salesperson tell me something I didnt' already know.

2). the marketing words have grossly compromised meaning, even an engineer cannot deduce what unlimited, congestion, prioritized really means. You don't need to be an engineer. Unlimited means no additional price regardless how much you use. Congestion means high traffic. Prioritized means others are placed ahead of you in line for data who are either not on an unlimited plan or have not yet become subject to prioritization yet in their current billiing cycle, i.e. those not subject to prioritization(at least not yet).

3). There are some tools and some reference material that help a class of educated people deduce what *may* be happening to their coverage and speed, but the carriers are understandably not providing specifics. There are no tools that I know of that help the consumer assess "congestion", which can be just about anything based on the carriers metrics. Verizon is not going to give access to  proprietary information about network utilization. Just not going to happen. Nor should it.

4). It may very well be that the prioritizing of communication via the cellular network is being refined. I bet the poster finds his data speeds throttled even well after 0:00. Maybe he/she should perform the test again at 3:35am in the morning. My daughter keeps vampire hours, but seriously - how do you expect someone to effectively use bandwidth at that hour? Not sure what this means. Streaming video takes bandwidth. What does "effectively" mean, not streaming it without watching it???How do you "effectively" use bandwidth during the day??? I think MOST people simply USE bandwidth and don't really worry about "effectively" using it. Some people have actually stated on these forums they simply use bandwidth to "stick it" to Verizon, regardless that may be causing "congestion" on a tower which may be affecting someone's ability to "effectively" use bandwidth.

5). People have prior experience with service and unlimited plans. The plans - did they change underneath them? Were they led to believe their plans supported a certain performance, only to find that performance changed? Yes, they may have had previous experience with unlimited plans. THOSE plans had different terms and people are acting as if they didn't.

6). I think the communication of the details of these plans has improved over time. Were the differences spelled out clearly when they were first introduced as they tend to be now? YES, for those who were willing to READ THEM. Some STILL aren't willing to read the terms and THAT is not going to change. Get unlimited data on the network you deserve: Verizon | About Verizon  Publication date = 2/12/2017 and INCLUDES information about prioritization AND throttling of hotspot data after 10 GB of hotspot usage. The FAQ available at the time gave even more detailed information.

7). There are a few more I can think of, but I hope you got this far, and may concede it's not really that simple for your average consumer (that doesn't know the difference between a system cache and an application cache and should not have to) to develop an accurate mental model of what is going on, what to expect, what plan is best for them. BTW, I'm partial to the number seven so I'll stop. The average customer JUST reads headlines and does not worry about details and then complain about the information available in those details, but simply complains about things which are explained in the details. Simple as that. You don't need to know the difference, simply be willing to READ.

Wait, I like the unwritten number (8); besides the language of the "go unlimted" FAQs containing ambiguous terminology, there are also some interesting key words that further complicate matters like "temporarily" and "upto" which would really confuse and help the customer develop inappropriate expectations for service. "Temporarily" simply means that your prioritization will end on a tower when the high traffic on that tower lets up. For example, during rush hour, your car's speed is "temporarily" slowed UNTIL traffic allows you to travel at a higher speed. "Up to" simply means not higher than. In the meaning of throttling, it simply means your data speed when throttling to 3G speeds will NOT be higher than 600 Kbps but COULD be lower, depending on traffic/environmental conditions.

Fair / unfair?

[Cliffart]

I just switched from an unlimited plan from another carrier to Verizon's unlimited plan and now I can't get over 1Mbps most of the time.  It's not due to signal strength as this picture shows. 

As I just signed up with Verizon and only used <200MB this month, it's not from being throttled.  I stopped by a Verizon store to have them look at it and the guy reset my network settings but that didn't help.  I'm going to need to switch back to the other carrier because this is almost unusable. 

I'm in the San Diego area but I was in Houston over the weekend and saw the issue there.  One of my friends who also has Verizon doesn't have this issue but she's not on an unlimited data plan. 

I've seen a lot of responses from Verizon technical support in this thread but I don't see anyone responding about the outcome of this being resolved.  I'm hoping no one is responding since they fixed the issue.