In just a little over two months Verizon will start throttling the connections of its heavy-use unlimited 4G LTE mobile customers.
Verizon announced it will expand initiative called Network Optimization, or a euphemistic way of saying mobile speed throttling.
The change goes into effect on October 1, after which the carrier will begin slowing down the connections for unlimited customers who enter the top five percentile of data users eating up 4.7GB or more a month.
Big Red will also restrict users' data speeds if they are trying to access a congested cellphone network such as those in a densely packed metropolitan center.
Network Optimization is actually an older program Verizon put in place originally in September 2011 but it just affected 3G customers at the time. Now it will expand to 4G LTE users and Verizon will begin sending out messages to customers informing them of the coming change starting August 1.
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Network Optimization is actually an older program Verizon put in place in September 2011 but it only impacted 3G customers at the time. Now it's expanding to 4G LTE users and Verizon will begin sending out messages to customers informing them of the change starting August 1.
Once users have been tagged with throttled service, they'll experience slower speed through the rest of the monthly billing cycle. Worse yet, an updated policy page on Verizon's website explains that throttled service could extend onto a customer's next month of service.
To help customers avoid getting hit by Network Optimization, Droid Life reports Verizon has suggested a few solutions. One tip is for uses to watch their data usage closely with a variety of tools Verizon offers or migrate from their unlimited plans to a MORE Everything contract. Clearly, neither solution is ideal.
It seems truly unlimited plans are on the way out at Verizon, but it isn't the only carrier. Sprint also announced it was throttling speeds for its heaviest data users in May and called the initiative "congestion management."
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