Verizon DOES throttle iPhone 5 data for unlimited plans after 2 Gb
Balut
Newbie

I recently upgraded a dumb phone on my family plan to the iPhone 5, then switched it to my line (so I could keep the unlimited on my line). Everything was working great until this morning when I noticed my 4g speed drop from around 8 Mbps last night to around 1.5 Mbps this morning. I suspected throttling (sorry, "network optimization"), so I checked my data usage and I am at 2.7 Gb with 16 days left in my billing cycle. I thought 4g users were not going to be throttled, and even if that were the case, not until reaching around 5 Gb of usage. Well, I just got off the phone with Verizon and I am in fact being throttled. Apparently, anyone on an unlimited 4g plan gets throttled at 2 Gb for the rest of the billing cycle. Doesn't make me happy as I'm sure that is not publicized anywhere by Verizon. Just thought I would share.

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Re: Verizon DOES throttle iPhone 5 data for unlimited plans after 2 Gb
Ann154
Community Leader
Community Leader

Unless they have changed the Network Optimization policy, then you shouldn't be throttled with a 4G LTE device. They did reserve the right to change it at any time in the future.

I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.

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Re: Verizon DOES throttle iPhone 5 data for unlimited plans after 2 Gb
tikibar1
Community Leader
Community Leader

The policy hasn't been changed:

Network Optimization

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Re: Verizon DOES throttle iPhone 5 data for unlimited plans after 2 Gb
Tidbits
Legend

My mother used my s3 to watch Hulu the past 2 weeks and she is not being throttled. So far she's hit 20.3 GB. If you are on the 3G network regardless if you have a 4G device you will be throttled though.

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Re: Verizon DOES throttle iPhone 5 data for unlimited plans after 2 Gb
Balut
Newbie

I am on LTE here in Spokane, WA. I understand that the policy still says they will not throttle 4g customers, but I am just repeating what the rep on the phone told me. Seems likely to me since the speed dropped shortly after exceeding 2 Gb.

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Re: Verizon DOES throttle iPhone 5 data for unlimited plans after 2 Gb
johnandroid
Enthusiast - Level 3

She probably was not supposed to admit that so freely.  It isn't like we didn't know already that they selectively throttle data, even if you are on 4g, which they claim not to throttle.  Now we have it straight from a Verizon Wireless rep though: VZW selectively throttles 4g data.

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Re: Verizon DOES throttle iPhone 5 data for unlimited plans after 2 Gb
kaebfly
Champion - Level 3

Or....the rep is one of many that don't know what they are talking about (sorry to those that are  better informed) and gave information based on 3G data usage and NOT 4G LTE. Not saying they do or don't throttle...but I can say that they do not and have not throttled me at all on my unlimited data plan.

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Re: Verizon DOES throttle iPhone 5 data for unlimited plans after 2 Gb
Tidbits
Legend

It could as simple as people with unlimited data plans in your area are tethering to their hearts content suckling up as much bandwidth as they can.

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Re: Verizon DOES throttle iPhone 5 data for unlimited plans after 2 Gb
BobZef
Newbie

Here's what happened to me.

My son streams video before and after school. We were on an unlimited plan. His largest monthly usage was 2.7 GB.

We bought new phones and switched to a limited plan. Now his usage is about 5 GB/month. We always keep LTE turned off on the new phone. Has behavior has not changed. The increase in usage happened exactly the time we switched plans. We always keep all bills so we have the numbers.

He was happy with the video quality before and was getting less throughput. Now we're forced to use more data for no additional benefit.

When they sold us the limited plan they analyzed our usage and only considered the lower number. So they could say that switching to the limited plan would be more economical for us. Because of the bandwidth change it is not.

They can probably say they don't throttle the unlimited plan. Maybe they just shunt the unlimited traffic to a more congested network. Strictly speaking that's not throttling.

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