Hey buddy, you, the one who is consuming massive amounts of 4G LTE data on your unlimited data plan and is out of contract. You will want to pay attention to what I’m about to share.

Come August 31, if Verizon deems your account as using “an extraordinary amount of data” each month, you could see your line completely disconnected. In other words, Verizon may shut you down by the end of August.

According to sources of ours, Verizon is working on an Unlimited Data Plan Migration for the highest unlimited data users on their network. Starting tomorrow, July 21, Verizon will begin notifying users who have been flagged as using that “extraordinary” amount via mailer and through bill messages and explain to them their options to stay with Big Red. What are their options? Verizon is forcing these out of contract “extraordinary” data users to move to The Verizon Plan (a tiered plan) by August 31 or they will shut down the line. If they don’t take that option by August 31 and their line is disconnected, they will have up to 50 days to re-activate, but of course, they can only do so by switching over to The Verizon Plan.

As of right now, we do not know what an “extraordinary” amount of data is. Are we talking 25GB per month? We’ll be sure to let you know if we find out. Verizon has confirmed to us that they will begin notifying a “small group” of customers (via both bill message and letter) who use that “extraordinary” amount of data, telling them that they will need a new plan by August 31.

EDIT: Verizon also told us the following as it relates to “extraordinary” use. Note the 100GB plan as an example, so take that as you will.

These users are using data amounts well in excess of our largest plan size (100 GB). While the 100 GB plan is designed to be shared across multiple users, each line receiving notification to move to the new Verizon Plan is using well in excess of that on a single device.

If the plan is “unlimited” why are putting a threshold on what is considered extraordinary? That’s like saying the number 100 is is extremely large compared to infinity.

THEY are the ones that created the unlimited plan and THEY are the ones that promised people could keep it. It was THEIR business decision and the ramifications were all their responsibility to foresee.

Your favorite technology company, Google, is working on an upcoming feature that could put the kibosh on autoplaying videos for good. Soon you’ll be able to silence.

If 100GB is above their threshold for what is considered too much, why didn’t they just call it a 100GB plan? They are being extremely unethical by going back on their word. I suppose this is the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I am cancelling my Verizon account and will not be doing business with them for the foreseeable future. Farming & Rural Areas: If you receive a Verizon disconnect letter and you live in an area where you do not have cable or other internet provider of 10Mbps minimum, then be SURE to file a complaint with FCC (). Many farms and rural areas are 100% dependant on 4G service for internet. We have no options and it is certainly worthy of a lawsuit if Verizon makes internet unattainable in these areas by unreasonable price, throttling, or limiting the amount we download.

Our rural families and children deserve the same rights to internet access as do all Americans. The FCC licenses the frequencies to Verizon, and the FCC has the power to force them to be reasonable. Prepare to stand up and make your voice heard with the FCC.

Contract or not, everyone, living everywhere deserves the right to internet access at a reasonable cost. I have grand fathered 3g service two usb cell cards.

I have unlimited data since its creation”ie;flat cell cards and have been month month no contract since year two 12 or 14 years ago.” I called vzw. They said no way they will terminate my usb cell numbers for 3g. Unless i would use them as a server 24/7 around clock 365 and 100s 100s gb of use.LOLfeel sorry for you dumb 4 g lte users. Looool; only one thing that i had to do several years back 3 maybe Vzw no longer has 3 g usb cards for sale. So i found brand new ones on the net bought 6 they break die ect. And all i do is call give s/n number and bingo new card.up and working same number.

Loool you cant just stream 1000 gbs a week or month people and think you wont pay loool i use 20 to 30 gb per month.I dont do movies large data hogs but run 24/7 all my business home laps ect. For 59.99 a month.loool suckers.

I went to a corporate VZW store yesterday and was informed by a sales rep with a level headed straight up attitude about VZW nonsense of this claim was just “rumors” I appreciate droid-life in the past has not been wrong for similar “rape the customer” changes. It was mentioned that some high officials in Verizon have unlimited data but I suppose that is called double standards and another point came up in the conversation, instead of limiting on how much data is used, why not charge for the speeds and download as much data as needed. Lets face it since companies claim they are “improving their networks” but still complain that less than 1% of unl data customers are slowing down the network or something along those rhetoric/hysteria lines that some people will bash each other instead of the carrier for implying such monopolies is bunch of MALARKEY! Share any information in petitions/lawsuits that have been started to change the current monopolies in place if the FCC is willing to back to consumers. Godspeed to us all! Sorry, Joe, but VZW has the right to kick off anyone who isn’t under contract, for any reason.

If you’re month to month, then you have a contract for that monthly period of service only. I’ve read the fine print in my VZW contractothers have quoted relevant parts of Verizon’s contractural terms in this discussion. My experience in the 16 years I have been with Verizon has taught me that the last people to believe are the VZW store employees, and next to last are the phone reps and technicians.

This is ridiculous and goes to show you how money hungry Verizon truly is. We have had Verizon for 10+ years, have 3 lines and pay about $280/mo. Do the math I personally am on an unlimited data grandfathered line, my wife and son on contracted limes, sharing 6GB/mo. When they stopped unlimited data plans, i started buying new phones out of pocket at $600+ a pop to keep from having to go to a restricted usage contract in order to get a financed phone through them. When they recently started allowing grandfathered lines to “finance” phones through them, I got my newest phone through them, the first in about 4-5 years. The catch was, they were charging these grandfathered lines an additional $20/mo for having unlimited service. Comcast offers 300GB/mo for about the same.

Regardless, we are in a world where everything is internet connected. I am always streaming music, videos, my Uber app, my GPS, which is always on while I’m Ubering, email, games, web surfing, background apps, of which Version’s own software that runs in the background uses your data, as well, etc. I am 23 days into my cycle and am at 17GB so far this month. Nothing illegal, nothing out of the ordinary, all apps and usage is legitimate. I refuse to switch to my wifi at home, because then it counts against my Comcast usage, considering I am being charged additional compared to the non-unlimited user.

Html Project Free Download here. Just looking more and more like another way for Verizon to pry more money from our pockets. Well I definitely average over 100, probably 120 or 130.

(Verizon conveniently now no longer shows what my total data usage is on previous month’s bills.) This update helps clarify things a lot, and it could much worse. But now it’s a question of what “well in excess” means. I would assume 130 won’t trigger me as well in excess, but who knows. I’m in the process of extending my unl data contact 2 more years just to be a little more safe.

For those curious here’s my method: Doing a family plan dumbphone upgrade to extend that contact 2 years, then swapping my just now available unl data line upgrade with that newly extended line for a second dumbphone upgrade, end result both lines contacts extended 2 years, no other changes besides having to pay two stupid $40 upgrade fees and tax for two trash dumbphones, about $100 total. Seems worth it as this should also make me not get hit by the $20 unl data price increase for 2 additional years as well, which was due to hit me with a few days. No it’s a long story/process but basically I have an old family plan with unl data on one line, and several other lines with dumbphones. I did all of this online on My Verizon: Dumbphone lines being out of contract, I first had to do a cheap dumbphone upgrade on a dumphone line, then once that processed the next day transfer upgrade from my unl data line to that same dumphone line (since it’s now in new 2 yr contract, I’m able to transfer upgrade to it), do second _dumbphone_ upgrade on that same line. At this point later in the day when it ships, it shows my unl data line contract is extended 2 years. I can now return the first order which I just received, without restocking fee because I didn’t open the box (according to Verizon rep on the phone), so that dumbphone line will go back to being out of contract, everything exactly as before except I’m out only about $50 (not 100 as I originally thought above, since it turns out I can return the first upgrade), and my unl contract now goes two more years. Anyone received the notice today?

They said they will start on the 21st. I am hoping the the 100GB is the number so that I am safe. That being said I still think its is absolute BS. I agree with the user who said unlimited is unlimited.

You can’t say you have unlimited data, but then be mad when people has high usage numbers. All they are doing is using their “UNLIMITED” data like they want too. They already raised prices on unlimited data and i get that. They can do that, but to threaten to cancel peoples lines are sh*ty. Shame on you Verizon.

You created the unlimited plan and now that its not benefiting you pocket you are acting like a sore looser and a baby. I’ve been a customer for 16 years and have been buying phones at full price for the last 6 years just to keep my data and then you pull this? Imagine that. Another article how we will lose our unlimited, a bunch of posters that have believed these hyped up articles over the years and gave up their unlimited and now jump for joy everytime those of us that kept unlimited might lose it. Only to find out again that the posts were hyperbole and it turns out it will only effect those actually abusing the unlimited. Maybe there are a few actually using 100 gigs on the phone, not sure how they do it, maybe cast everything. But not a verizon apologist for sure but i think 100 gigs is a legit limit, better than the throttled around 20 gigs others are doing.

So again this years hyperbole shows we get to keep our unlimited once again. Will wait for next years, always fun. Yeah i know what it means, and you know what it means, the problem is the people who actually make the rules dont know what it means, others are allowed to throttle you to unusable speeds at around 20 gigs. My post states nothing to that matter.

It was another article about how we would all be crippled and lose our unlimited. It turns out 95% + wont be affected. People who pay for tethering may actually have a gripe but if out of contract not much you can do, noone else is offering anything close to unlimited non throttled under 100 gigs for the price. I do not beleive someone is using 100 gigs amonth without tethering, or downloading than tranferring which is a run around for the same thing. I as an unlimited person who has gone through the hoops to keep it that way, does not have a problem with this policy. WIth that said i stand behind my post.

If you have direct tv than unlimited att is an option, not sure about if they will restart the suspended plan,. But if they determine its a congested area they will throttle you at 22 gigs. If you are tethering illegally than you have no gripe now do you.

If you are rooted and bypassing tethering you are breaking TOS. And as i said while i guess its possible to use 100 gig legally, i understand verizon not believing so. I havent been agrreable with having to buy full outright, or 20 price hike, but i dont jump on whims, i look at it and see that its still a good deal for me. My main post was simply that its a hyperbole story to get unlimited users up in arms, and to get all those who have fell for this hyperbole in the past to get on and jump for joy. I understand, I was just saying that in the case that I do get the letter I am gone. I’m not going to jump ship, again unless I get that letter. Otherwise I’m staying put.

Like you said this is probably to get people up in arms and to get people to say the word “Verizon” as any publicity is good publicity. I would be surprised if the FCC didn’t step in again and try to stop them from doing this. About the AT&T UDP, I snagged it from a friend a few months back when he was deployed for $175, and I have it under billing suspension because I am not using it. But if I ever need to use it, it’s available to me. You must be older like me who remembers consumer rights.

They dont exist anymore. They can change anything at anytime they just offer cancellation of your contract, and possibly cover any charges you may have as a result and that would be prorated. The true news says over 100 gigs so you would fall into that. But you wouldn’t win much unfortunately, most likely wouldnt even get it to court, and probably not much to settle in cost wise. I understand the stance on unlimited is unlimited, but you have to remember the government already allows services to call unlimited that they throttle at around 20 gigs, so not seeing any government help on this one.

Can the public revoke spectrum licenses if carriers underutilize said spectrum? There needs to be pressure to keep pricing fair, and what better incentive is there than to take away their access to public resources that they don’t fully use. With the industry being so mature, pricing should be dropping, not rising. That’s pricing the public out of the market to use the resources, leaving it underused in most martkets.

The fact that the industry has to use public resources to operate, that should put them under heavy regulations so everyone has access to it. Considering it costs maybe a penny per GB for them to provide the data once infrastructure in place, let me know when data is metered and charged like any other utility at a reasonable rate – say somewhere under $0.50/GB.

At this price Verizon would still be getting absurd gross margins on data in the realm of 5000%. Not the $5+/GB or 50,000% margin they’re currently murdering customers for, but certainly more than enough to cover capital expenditures/ infrastructure maintenance and still bring them billions in profit. Until then, I’ll continue hanging onto unlimited data.

They don’t have to continue to offer it, but they are bound by the terms of the original agreement with grandfathered unlimited customers. There’s a very legally-based reason those people continue to be grandfathered, and it isn’t because Verizon is being nice, it’s because there is a legally binding agreement between Verizon and those customers in place. When Verizon originally decided to do away with unlimited plans, there were just too many customers on them to just cut the cord and not feel the blowback. Verizon had to tread lightly, gently (sometimes not so gently, but you get the point) pushing those customers away from the plans. This is what wolves do to bison when they’re hunting them, they isolate as few as possible to make the kill easier.

Now that Verizon has successfully weeded out all but the most stubborn customers, they feel they have the advantage (which they most likely do, they’ve been a wolf for a very long time and are good at it). Throttling and cutting off unlimited customers is obviously going against the original agreement, or they would have done it sooner when there were more people still on the unlimited plans, but because it is counter to their agreement, they had to wait until the number of people left on those plans was sufficiently low enough (separated from the herd) to make a class-action lawsuit less enticing for the lawyers since the number of “victims” will be so low.

Verizon waited for the right moment to make their stand, and I think their legal team is competent enough that they will most likely win this case, but it doesn’t make them right. Hillary Clinton is quite proud of the fact that she once successfully defended a rapist she knew was guilty by being the dirtier, more aggressive lawyer against a particularly ineffectual prosecutor, and you can bet that that’s going to be Verizon’s strategy here.

For some reason, I think you are on to something. I have read all the arguments about people saying that your contract is up so you are under no agreement to them so they can do whatever they want, whenever they want. On the surface, that seems like it would be the case. But we all know how much Verizon likes to maximize their profit (to be fair, most any company is the same way).

I just don’t think Verizon is letting customers remain on unlimited data out of the goodness of their hearts. I don’t know if it is wording in the original contract you agreed to or what, but my suspicion is that there is something there that a plaintiff would have a leg to stand on that has prevented Verizon from just killing off all UDP. Hey people that are the tiny percentage and use more data than we like, you either switch to a tiered plan that will cost you twenty times more than you’re currently paying when we factor in the overages, or find somewhere else.

I’ve been more than happy to pay much higher average bills all along to keep my unlimited, even after they raised it. But with the days of everything streaming, higher quality video taking more bandwidth, and the plans are still as restrictive as ever, they’re simply looking to cash in on the few people they know they can squeeze more out of. Of course, the thing they might not realize is that by alienating those of us with little choice but to stay with them, we’ll end up doing everything we have to, to keep from using any data more than we absolutely need.

I guarantee if they shut me down into a tiered plan, I will drop the entire account down to the absolute bare minimum, only because of a coverage issue in my area that I’d have to keep the phone. But when you factor in the three lines, and what I’m paying on them just to keep my own line as unlimited and compare it to the “new” cheaper tiered plans, I promise there won’t be any overages at all, and they will be getting half the money they are now.

I am fully aware of what I’d pay if I continued to use what I use, and that ain’t happening. So if they think they can screw me into a tiered plan and then make up for the loss because I’ll have no choice but to pay for all that data, nope. Too many ways around it. In a way, I guess I could thank them for saving me $200 a month if it happens.

And if there happens to be a time when another carrier finally does have comparable coverage in the areas I used it most, I will easily defect. I’d always been a supporter, even with all the stupid changes up until now. But now it’s greed, plain and simple. I can’t believe all these people saying Verizon can’t do this like they have a clue about it.

Verizon has done this in the past and so have other companies. Somewhere around 2006-2007 verizon auto DC’D aircards that use too much data. It was something low like more than 5GB/m for 3 months in a rolling 12m period. They waived the termination fee and on a case by case basis refunded the $50 for the air card if it wasn’t free. So first I want to point out the contract doesn’t even matter.

It only exists when subsidy happens. Which is for example when you pay $200 for a $650 phone or if you ever paid less than $100 for any phone. That would have been a contract. The contract obligate verizon to provide you service for 2 years Where do people get that? It obligated you to stay with Verizon or pay them money because of that subsidy.

You could get out of the contract if Verizon couldn’t provide service in your area. That was Verizon’s obligation. Again they have done this before. On Verizon’s largest plan (100GB) it is $4.50/GB. Someone below said they use 200GB/m between 4 people?

Why because they are using it in lui of a home connection. Because they don’t want to pay the cable company to run a line to their house (must be a rural area) 200GB at $4.50 is $900 plus phone fees and taxes it’s $1100-1200 and verizon is probably getting $300-400 from those people. Of course they are going to cut them off. Verizon says they have the best network Well they have the most profitable network And they charge enough per GB that their average user is using around 3GB I think. Obviously Verizon doesn’t have the network capacity to allow people to have everything.

Verizon isn’t going to give up being #1 in profitability. #1 network is what they are famous for and they either have to give up #1 network or #1 in profits to give people unlimited data. Back to usage Someone on here uses 200GB /m on 4 people in a rural area. That’s the equivalent of 60-100 of Verizon’s normal customers.

A few years ago normal was 1GB/m and verizon ditched unlimited when normal was a few hundred MB/m. They switched it from unlimited to 2GB so essentially these people with unlimited are paying for either 2GB or 5GB (there are 2 or more different access fee amount for unlimited) they are getting caught up in the words.

When Verizon originally sold them unlimited way back before 2010 the average user was using a few hundred MB on a smartphone. It was never intended for LTE. SWITCH your carrier. Sprint has truly unlimited plans! Based on their hissy fit with unlimited data customers who use extraordinary amounts of data per month, in all fairness I think Verizon should reimburse me for all the months and months of unused data! I mean, I purchase 10 GB of data, and have used just 2 GB per month.

Verizon has been perfectly happy to keep that unused data in their pocket! No notification from them about lowering my data plan. Well, I’ve started changing that! I’ve started streaming Hulu off my data plan because there’s less buffering! I’m happy to report that I sucked up 9 GB of my data last period. And I’m going to continue to get MY MONEY’S WORTH.

Does Verizon think that these extraordinary data hogs are in some way cheating? Are they letting other people suck off their unlimited data with Mobile Hotspot use? Well, I’m very happy to read that Verizon is getting with the program of rollover data. It’s about time!

In the past year Verizon Wireless’ stock has gone up by almost 10 points (Currently sitting at $55 so a pretty big jump). You may think they are losing business but investors are still heavily behind them. Customers don’t use as much data (Nor care about it) as much as you think. Personally my wife watches Facebook videos all day and never pays attention to if she’s on WiFi or not, she just worries about seeing that text (You have 10% data remaining) and then treads lightly through the rest of the month, but doesn’t actively monitor her data usage.

Might be a small example but I doubt I’ve seen more than a handful of people who do actively check their data allotment throughout the month. Verizon has no reason at all to bring back unlimited data, they are still making plenty of money, have the best network in the U.S., and the average customer couldn’t care less about tiered or unlimited data as long as they get data when they want it. People on here may whine incessantly about how terrible Verizon is but just like unlocking bootloaders we are very small minority and probably make up less than 10% of the mobile world (Probably even less than that). Verizon doesn’t care about us they care about the 90% who doesn’t know the difference. I tend to agree with you, but there is an impact on the network by heavy data users.

It isn’t exactly tied to the strict number of GB’s they use in a month, but more when they use them and just how long they use them continuously during specific hours. So I agree monthly caps are stupid, but hourly caps could be argued to help. There are very specific hours that Verizon’s network works hardest to provide enough bandwidth for everyone connected, so at those specific times, capping heavy users makes sense. But there are other times when someone could eat up all of the bandwidth without inconveniencing anyone else, so those times should be unlimited. It’s exactly the same problem they saw with voice back when cell phones became popular, peak times there was network saturation, so they started limiting those minutes, but offered unlimited, or huge buckets of off-peak minutes. It worked for the most part, so why they haven’t followed the same strategy with data is beyond me. This is just greedy Verizon going deliberately out of their way to screw over their most loyal and long-term customers.

Verizon’s profits are higher and higher quarter after quarter and they keep adding on any and every little fee they can make up out of thin air and yet it’s the unlimited data users hogging all the bandwidth and slowing down their network? Completely false. Verizon has over 130 million customers. Less than 1% of those customers are grandfathered unlimited data users.

Most unlimited data users actually don’t use any more data than anyone else. A 20GB shared data customer who regularly uses 15+GB each month is putting more “strain” on their network than an unlimited data user who uses only 10GB each month. This is nothing more than a greedy, anti-consumer move by Verizon that they have been edging on for the past 5 years, plain and simple.

SOME unlimited data users MIGHT be using more data on an individual basis than those on a shared data plan, but on the whole, it’s the shared data customers using the bulk of the terabytes of data that pass through Verizon’s towers on any given day. They have more than enough bandwidth to go around but like to pretend that they don’t. I have a feeling there will be lawsuits left and right, as the only way Verizon can legally kick out anyone of their network is for excessive roaming data per their terms and conditions. Their actions would be a direct violation of their own terms just to get people in more expensive plans. It will cost them money, fines, and subscribers if they go through this mean plan, especially if the FCC gets involved and demands what would be their threshold to cut someone out of their network using “excessive data” in terms of Gigabytes.

My guess is that extraordinary usage is defined by anyone using more than what Verizon offers as a retail data package. If they sell a 50GB package, then that’s not extraordinary as it’s something Verizon sells ordinarily. Verizon’s issue won’t be with the FCC, but the FTC as unlimited means unlimited. If Verizon sells me unlimited for $50 a month and I use 15GB, then they can’t shut off someone who pays the same, but uses more. Verizon will ultimately have to force everyone off unlimited is my guess who is off contract. The FTC I think would be okay with that especially if out of contract and it’s non discriminatory. The lawyers will be out on this one.

Not concerned about this until i actually see people losing their service and for what amounts if it even happens. Ive been hearing for 3 years now how i would lose my unlimited how it would be throttled etc.

I dont consider myself a big user but do use more during football season watching games. Verizon can keep my unlimited and my 85 bucks a month or they can have the data and not the 85 thats their choice, ill wait for them to make it. I had direct tv for 8 years payed 11 month extra for the 5 hd channels they had, than they took those channels and said they would cost an extra 5 bucks, i told them they had a choice they chose to not give me my channels back i chose not to give them 120 dollars a month for the last 6 years.

Of course after i told them to cnacel my service immediately all of a sudden it was possible to give me the channels for free at which point i told them to stick it! Been with an antenna ever since and havent missed it, I want to stay on verizon due to nfl mobile but i like satellite im sure i wouldnt miss it, other alternative ways to watch football on mobile. Holy f-ing sh-eit. I literally just yesterday had a long talk on the phone with a very helpful Verizon rep, going over any possible options for my unlimited data as I’m scheduled for the $20 increase when my contact is up soon.

In short, there are none. I’m just going to have to bite the bullet and pay the extra. There used to be an option on single line accounts (my family plan wouldn’t apply) of adding some minutes which would extend the contract by a year, but they took that option away around February. I don’t use “extraordinary” amounts of data, just basic usage (regular web browsing, some gaming, and an hour or two Netflix a day typically, no torrenting), which comes to around 100-140GB generally.

I would assume “extraordinary” to mean something like a Terabyte or more, but since they give no indication how they define the word, I guess all I can do is wait and see. And I will be pretty darn pis*ed if I am hit with this as I’ve played by the rules and worked hard to maintain this over the last four years since getting LTE, as I have no other options for internet where I live. This is very unfortunate for me because I know I am one to either get the boot or flagged. I don’t have internet at my apartment and I use my UDP and hotspot for everything. PS4, laptop, chromecast, firestick w/ kodi.

My bill is at least 155gb a month. Why get an internet provider when you have this option you know? I’m really upset because as an computer engineer, I know for a fact that less than 1% can’t disrupt the network.

This is Verizon being petty and flipping a finger back at us who have been flipping our fingers at them and tiered data users this entire time. Honestly your usage sounds similar to mine (see my post), maybe a little higher.

But if they flag users like us who are just using basic internet, that really shouldn’t fall under “extraordinary”. Of course I fear I’ll be proven wrong and that will be a sad day indeed. I have no other options for internet. Getting this set up and working relatively well the last few years has been an engineering feat where I’m. “Extraordinary” should really mean those few people who leave torrents running 24 hours a day for 1000+ GB/mo. I think I hit 200 once.

Usually around 80-130 I’m not feeling very hopeful right now but maybe if I can plead with them explaining (truth) that this is the only internet option I have living out where I am. I mean if they go through this with me I’m just going to have to drop Verizon altogether, all four lines on my family plan that I’ve paid for every month for 15 years.

All of them are now out of contact or will be very soon. So I guess it’s up to them if they want to continue receiving my couple hundred bucks a month, or not. Ohhhhh but y’all talking smack about users using their data as they wish and even if they dont want wifi. If this were to happen 3-4 years ago y’all would’ve been bitching about it 100%. You gotta understand sometimes wifi is not the best everywhere.

It may be slow or lacking in signal strength and some people don’t always go to Starbucks or McDonald’s to get their wifi and be there all day. People are always on the go Everytime and 4GLTE is as fast as you could get for now while moving Everytime think about it •. Well, where I work, in a long 2-story building, we get superb wi-fi coverage anywhere downstairs but upstairs is spotty due to just a few employees working up there. Furthermore, the warehouse portion of the complex has minimal wi-fi coverage and due to concrete walls, the wi-fi signal (LTE too!) diminishes rapidly. And I’m often out in the field or conducting site surveys/visits to building that have no wi-fi service (sometimes no power etc) and having to rely on mobile data for everything. Earlier this year we were in between houses while moving and rented a place for a while.

It was near the lake and even with Verizon I got, at best, a minimal CDMA or LTE signal. TV was included via DirecTV but the property had no internet service at all and had never been wired for cable or U-Verse. And the closest neighbors were too far away to jump on their guest network. So my grandfathered UDP was a godsend for those 5 monthsnow, we did no Netflix but plenty of music streaming, web browsing and whatnot. I think the most my wife and I ever used was 55GB in a month and that was with pretty heavy usage.

I don’t see how anyone can realistically use 100GB+ unless they are majorly streaming/torrenting. It’s not that I have a problem with tiered data plans so much, it’s the price/GB that irks me. I could comfortably live with 8-10GB/month if it was reasonably priced. Personally, I’d avoid Sprint. I tried their 30-day trial period and ended up pretty annoyed. I “Bought” a phone and was told I could just return it if I didn’t like the service and terminate my plan at that time. After about a week I realized it wasn’t for me (Coming from Verizon the service just wasn’t on par), returned the phone and paid everything off that I needed to ($35 for activation fee’s and $22 for the service that I used in a week) for the service to be terminated and received a receipt stating as much that showed my phone as being returned.

About a month later I got a letter from collections stating that I had about $700 of unpaid bills to sprint, of course the person in the store returned the phone but didn’t mark it on my account, so I had the fun job of spending the next two months working with Sprint and collections trying to get it rectified. In the end it was taken care of but calling once every couple of days for two months made me really hate this company. The service wasn’t bad but the customer support (Especially the billing department) was just plain awful. At least 2 or 3 times I was told it had been taken care of only to get another letter from collections a week or two later. Sorry for the rant, I just can’t stand talking about Sprint. T-Mobile on the other hand was excellent when I tested their service, I didn’t stick with them but they had no problems at all with my device return and line deactivation.

Their service was sub par but their customer support was exceptional. 1st off I haven’t “Cheated” the system out of anything.

I have paid my bill on time w/o interruption for 11yrs. And I specifically selected my ULD package when they offered them. 2nd Verizon LOST the court battle to stop people from tethering their data If you couldn’t use it, why allow phones that had THEY ADVERTISED could do it? That being said. Please know what you’re talking about before you say untrue things about ppl.

It is perfectly ok for you to feel bitter that I have had this service and used it FULLY for years, and you didn’t But, then again I’m me, and you’re you. Enjoy your day! Verizon allows newer plans to tether data because they are apart of the new spectrum licensing. Older plans do not offer free data tethering. You specifically stated that you used your phone for playing Xbox and the only way to do that is by tethering (Either wired or wirelessly). Thus you cheated the system. I’m guessing you tether other things as well.

I’m not arguing about you keeping your plan, using it for tethering a quarter of a TB of data per month is ridiculous though. That’s damn near impossible to hit while just using your phone itself, which is what the plan is for. I truly couldn’t care less about how or how much data you use.

I am more than happy with my tiered data and jumped off the UDP bandwagon a couple years ago without being forced as it didn’t make much financial sense. As you said, enjoy your day, and enjoy looking for an actual ISP for your home. Verizon only stopped offering ULD in 2011 I just renewed my contract before they ended it (back then you were able to get a new phone at the $299.00 price) The FCC allowed “Open use of your data in 2012.“ So I was well within my contractual limits. Of which, to use my ULD as I notice I said “I” saw fit. And thus, I have, and will continue to do so, until notified otherwise. That said, in the meantime I will continue to use my “Hotspot” to activate any machine or device that I wish to, simply because Well, simply because I can, and unabashedly so (I’m currently @ 145GB) And on one other note It was only till a few months ago that Verizon raised the data price to $50.00 from its mere $30.00 that i had been paying for over a decade.

So I was by far the most amazing, cheapest data plan around. People were paying 2x the price I was as were getting less than I was for their dollar.

So whatever bargain basement plan you “jumped” to Great. I am perfectly content w/the relationship I have/had over the years. I still won and legally Not “cheating” either. TMobile did it but it was upwards of 2TB per user.

An average person using 50-100GB was not considered “excessive” because people on unlimited plans were using video, and they had not enabled BingeOn as a service feature at that point which drastically cut that usage down and many people left unlimited for that reason. However, today the amount stands at 25GB before you’re deprioritized but you’re still not throttled per se. Verizon should set the bar rather high, or risk losing customers to other carriers. I too have udp with unlimited mobile hotspot that I do pay $30.00 a month for.

Rarely do I use my hotspot. I average 20-22gig a month. I hope thats not considered excessive. 5 have 4 Smartphones and 1 basic phone. 2 phones have udp, 1 udp with mobile hotspot, 1 has 4 gig and the other has 5 gig. End of this month 4 phones will be out of contract. Just might be time to switch to AT&T if they deem 20-22 gig excessive.

At&t is offering 4 lines for $180.00 with udp up to 22gig per phone and throttled after that if youralready have Directv or Uverse. I guess now it’s a waiting game. That’s not entirely true. I’m no longer with Verizon, but those early contracts promised “unlimited data for life.” In the contract terms, “for life” was very clearly spelled out to mean “as long as you don’t change your plan.” The idea was that Verizon could entice you to switch plans by offering lower rates, free or substantially discounted devices, etc., but that you had the option to keep your plan forever, and they had to honor the original terms. Now, one could argue that the original terms only promised 2G speeds, or whatever was current at the time, and that would be a technically correct loophole, but to forcibly cancel your plan, just because they no longer feel the need to honor the promised terms?

Well that’s borderline illegal at best, and almost certainly class-action inducing. These practices, which unfortunately are not uncommon for Verizon, are the sole reason I dropped them in the first place. I miss their coverage — I won’t lie — but, to me, it’s simply not worth it. To be clear the promotional materials absolutely said “for life.” In fact, Verizon kept that language for years in all of their promotions.

The contracts, however, didn’t use that exact wording, but did spell out that the terms would remain as long as the customer did not change their plan. Remember, this was during a time when competition was fierce, rates were dropping like crazy, device capability was changing drastically almost monthly, and smartphones (as we know them) either didn’t exist or were very primitive by today’s standards.

Their “teams of legal experts” never imagined that anyone would be crazy enough to keep a plan more than a year or two (1-year plans were the norm back then), when the next year would bring a plan that cost much less; included a new, free, way-cooler device; and probably offered better terms for voice and texting, neither of which were “unlimited” back then. Data was a new “gimmick” that nobody really used, so why not throw that in? It was the voice minutes and per-text cost that really mattered. It’s easy to say that nobody would make such a stupid mistake like offer unlimited data for life, when judging by today’s standards, but the world of cellular didn’t always operate by today’s standards. EDIT: By the way, while not offering unlimited data, this link shows that Verizon hasn’t abandoned using the term “for life” in their promotions: •. If Verizon wants to keep even the illusion of honesty, they would classify “extraordinary” amount of data as an amount larger than their largest tiered plan. I think their largest published tiered plan currently available is 100GB.

Better yet would be to let it be defined externally – wasn’t Comcast once throttling anyone who exceeded 250GB? Although, I think they recently raised that to 1TB. Of course, I’m fully expecting Verizon to use this as a first wave of killing off unlimited entirely, as they slowly lower their threshold of “extraordinary” in subsequent waves. Time will tell; but given their past behavior, it’s what I expect to see happen over the next couple of years.

That’s nothing. I have everyone here beat, I guarantee. 749GB already this month. At least I’m using it as much as I can before I get booted! When I get booted I’ll pop a $65/month unlimited Cricket sim in my S7 Edge and not miss a beat, at speeds of 8mbps. My wife is already doing this and she loves it.

Everyone needs to check out Cricket’s unlimited plan. It’s the best thing going, in my opinion.

It’s AT&T’s LTE network, it’s just constantly throttled at 8mbps, which is plenty fast to download movies, stream HD Netflix and much more. AT&T has incredible coverage where I am, even better than Verizon. I’m riding this horse until it’s dead. Technically the equivalent plan wouldn’t be the 4GB as the plans with unlimited data don’t have unlimited talk and text. Considering the Talk and Text part is covered by the $20 line fee now and you just pay data, the equivalent total amount would depend on the talk and text plan you have with unlimited. In my case, the Total amount I currently pay is equal to what the 8GB a month plan would cost me now. Considering I use about 10-12 GB a month, If they were to kick me off unlimited I’d be looking at other providers as I’d need at least the 16GB plan and that would cost me more.

Yo Kellex: If you haven’t done one recently you should throw up a poll for the service provider people are using. I would be mighty curious to see if that graph changes at all in two months time when you can do a followup poll.

I for one am surprised it has taken this long for them to start actively cancelling their contract free unlimited customers. In fact I would still be surprised if they didn’t set the bar of “excessive” pretty low to try and clean out as many of these people as possible.

It is a relatively PR-friendly way to do it and I don’t think they are gaining much from keeping the program alive. Of course all of this is pulled straight outta my ass.

I do, do you understand unlimited MOBILE data? Apparently not. BTW, I’m no fan of Verizon, but with that said, I’m glad to see them doing this because those (on all carriers) that were using their unlimited data for their home internet were a contributing factor to us ALL LOSING IT going forward; abusing it at EVERYONE ELSES EXPENSE BUT THEIRS. Had they not been abusing it, who knows, *maybe* we wouldn’t have seen it go away. I just can’t stand people that do something that hurts the majority of others with zero regard for that just to eek out a tiny benefit for themselves. ITS GREEDY AND SELFISH.

But you keep on defending it, I’m sure your parents are proud. You are correct, and I would love to know the number of users that actually take advantage of that. Although with the increase of unlimited to $49 plus the $30 for that feature I would think the number of users that use that service is low comparatively, I never read the T&C on that service so unless there is some weird restriction, then you correct you can use as much as you want on as many devices as you want. With that said I still feel most “abusers” are not using that service. But that is my opinion. Yep, that’s what I’ll do when (not if) I get booted.

Trust me, I’m getting booted. Like, for sure. Haha Let’s just leave it at that. I have three bars of Verizon LTE right now and my speed test just got me 7mbps.

My wife gets between 8 and 9 on Cricket unlimited. They say it’s capped at 8 but she constantly gets a little more than that. Anyways, I’m streaming the news right now and surfing the web with 7mbps right now on Verizon, so moving to Cricket will be a great option for me.

She streams Netflix with her hotspot every single day. No problems at all. All in full HD.

Cricket is the best option, for sure. Plus, if you have an unlocked Verizon phone, all you have to do is pop in a Cricket SIM card and it works. My wife has the Verizon S7 Edge and it works perfect. Hotspot is unlocked too without root or Foxfi. I have the same phone. I’ll be doing the same when Verizon sends me packing. Problem with your logic is the fact Verizon has to honor all non-termination fee based conditions after ending the contract.

The customer may be in a month to month basis, but the conditions of the plan and benefits of it are still vigent until either the customer leaves the carrier or changes plan on their own will. Just because Verizon wants all their grandfathered customers on unlimited data plans in tiered plans does NOT give them the right to force people out of those plans if they want to stay as their customers beyond their contractual obligations involving an early termination fee. This is going to cause a lot of problems at Verizon Wireless if they follow through kicking people out of their carriers, and I hope they have enough lawyers (and a big budget) to represent them in every state where they provide service. Either they back up of their plans, or face major consequences.

Incorrect, as is the option of the customer to leave on their own will, unless Verizon abandons x or y market, the customer uses excessive roaming, or unauthorized uses of the service. Just because Verizon wants people to change their plans to more expensive ones does not make it legal for them to kick them out just because of those customers not willing to change their plans, as Verizon Wireless is subject to certain rules under Title II classification by the FCC. If any cellular carrier was allowed to do so, every couple of years you will see major shifts in customers among carriers. Sorry bubba, but a tarriffed service has a rate on it, whether is metered by the minute, GigaByte, or unlimited. You are missing the point about cell phone carriers being regulated under title II classification under the current FCC rules established by the Telecommunications Act, in the same way landline phone companies and ISPs are regulated currently. I would strongly recommend reading of the entire Title II section of the Telecommunications Act of 1934 before making another comment. Whether is wired or wireless, Title II applies and the FCC has full authority to levy fines against Verizon Wireless due to their Title II classification (Common Carrier).

It would be much harder under Title I. The plans are not offered to new customers, but the ones who have it are legally grandfathered on them as long as they want to keep them, and legally, Verizon would be legally bound to honor those plans until either the month to month customer leaves or decides to change plan on its own will. It’s not a matter of whether Verizon can legally force anyone with a plan they not offer to new customers out of their network just because they want to bully people on those plans to their current and pricier options (unless they abandon a specific market). The FCC will have a field day, and let’s not forget the FTC, and SEC pursuing legal action on behalf of their grandfathered customers. Unfortunately, the FCC can’t touch Verizon. The contract you agree to has a very specific clause in it in regard to accounts that do not renew contract. The clause in general states that once you fulfill your contact obligation you may continue service on a month to month basis.

If during this time the carrier retains the right to terminate service as long as they notify you. The clause was put in and still is as a safety net that allows them to force customers off plans that are not profitable. If you look at your current contract it there as well. Once you go month to month you are no longer legally protected to maintain service. Why grandfather plans then? Because it easier and more cost effective to allow customers to switch over time. After that they have the ability to say, we have you the service you signed up for under contract and that has ended so we are going to terminate any further business with you.

Not true, and the FCC can fine Verizon heavily for this. Without FCC licenses, Verizon or any cell phone carrier cannot operate in the US. Let’s not forget the SEC, and FTC asking Verizon questions regarding their plans to either make people switch to more expensive tiered plans, or kick them out because they refuse to have people in grandfathered plans which are also out of contract.

Legally, it will cost them, and customer wise, they are risking to lose a chunk of their share to the other three major carriers and some regionals. What would they fine them for? Did they provide you service for the length of your contract? Are they charging you for them disconnecting your service? So, What law or regulation would they be breaking? Per Verizon agreement, “We may change prices or any other term of your Service or this agreement at any time, but we’ll provide notice first, including written notice if you have Postpay Service.” also “WE TERMINATE YOUR SERVICE FOR GOOD CAUSE.” so by signing your name you acknowledge the power Verizon has. I am a retail employee of verizon.

I am expressing solely my opinion and my limited knowledge on this topic, and my opinions in no way express the views of Verizon. As far as I know, every plan we have has a date in it that states just how long the plans, promotional data, and specials, will be offered. They aren’t indefinite plans, nor is your plans price unchangeable once you’re out of contract. For instance, all of the original unlimited plans before LTE were going for 29.99, but were later bumped up to 49.99 if the plan wasn’t switched. The plans that will be changing are the plans after that, when LTE came out.

As for what an “excessive user” would be, I’ve seen plans for a mifi only, with unlimited, for only 79.99, using 650+ gb per month. Its ridiculous. I am a retail employee of verizon. I am expressing solely my opinion and my limited knowledge on this topic, and my opinions in no way express the views of Verizon. As far as I know, every plan we have has a date in it that states just how long the plans, promotional data, and specials, will be offered. They aren’t indefinite plans, nor is your plans price unchangeable once you’re out of contract.

For instance, all of the original unlimited plans before LTE were going for 29.99, but were later bumped up to 49.99 if the plan wasn’t switched. The plans that will be changing are the plans after that, when LTE came out. As for what an “excessive user” would be, I’ve seen plans for a mifi only, with unlimited, for only 79.99, using 650+ gb per month. Its ridiculous. From a “legal perspective”??

There is no legal perspective that binds Verizon to keep servicing a plan that no longer makes them money. That would be equivalent to you showing up to the gas station and demanding them sell it to you for 1.25. The ONLY scenarios that will come from this will be 1) customers complain and move to different service 2) FCC does nothing because they have “Zero” tools to address contract disputes because this ALL occurred as a result of the FCC saying you can NOT throttle those unlimited plans because customers were paying the bill in good faith for service to which Big Red is now saying can’t throttle you but we do not have to keep you and 3) No one files a lawsuit because they are bound by rules of arbitration that favor Verizon.

You are comparing apples to oranges. Verizon is obligated to keep those customers as long as they are being paid. Atlas Des Amphibiens De Guyane Pdf here. Also, Verizon can ONLY legally stop Class Action lawsuits, and can offer to hold arbitration (for which both parties have to pay 50% of all related costs), or have the case in small claims.

There is NOTHING stopping a customer to sue for damages in small claims court which do not require jury. Concepcion vs AT&T Mobility made that restriction on no class action lawsuits legal, but made it clear a carrier cannot stop individual lawsuits in Small Claims Court if the customer decides to do so. Here it is from Verizon Wireless site: #game #set #match •.

That can be challenged, and it has been defeated. Remember the guy who sued AT&T in regards to slowing his data speed on a grandfathered unlimited data plan? Here: Which lead to this fine last year by the FCC: Want to keep saying Verizon Wireless doesn’t have to respond to the pertaining government agencies, and not be challenged in small claims for their attempt to kick subscribers out because they want them to pay three to five times more for less data? This is going to be fun, and picking up bits and pieces to make your argument valid while ignoring many other pieces of information is not the way to defeat the argument of customes being grandfathered on plans they currently have until they either leave or change plans ON THEIR OWN. You found one thing I was wrong about and ignored ALL the other valid parts because they do not support your narrative. The can refuse you cell phone service and the best you can do is walk to small claims court and try to get some nickels and dimes from them cause direct damages only under the agreement.

And you are comparing apples and oranges when you said, “That can be challenged, and it has been defeated. Remember the guy who sued AT&T in regards to slowing his data speed on a grandfathered unlimited data plan?” because slowing down service you PAY for is not the same as not charging you and not providing you service. Which means FCC has nothing to go on and as @Verizon User points out they can terminate service for good cause.

Using in excess of 100GB on one line may not look too well if your painting Verizon as being bad guy. “#game #set #match” •. I have seen both parts of the argument, but how can Verizon kick out someone for using “too much” data just because they want those customers to sign new contracts with a much higher cost? The answer is they cannot for two reasons: 1. When Verizon Wireless was allowed to purchase the 700MHz AWS spectrum block, one of the conditions was NOT to kick out anyone from using a lot of data. Verizon Wireless is a common carrier under Title II of the Telecommunications Act of 1934. The FCC DOES have jurisdiction over them due to the change in classification, as it also pertains to the Open Internet innitiative.

I mentioned the AT&T case on this one, because their terms of service is very similar to Verizon, and they did the same exact thing Verizon is trying to do with GRANDFATHERED unlimited data plan customers. The logic is similar, and Verizon can be seriously punished If Verizon is allowed to proceed, what would be the next thing they will try. I bet if they add a condition which tells customers they must have a minimum income and not live in neighborhoods where they cannot make their desired revenue in order to kep service is perfectly legal? Verizon cannot nitpick what they want to enforce from their Terms and Conditions while ignore the rights of the consumer, especially those who have chosen to stay after their contractual agreements have been completed.

Those saying the terms and conditions do not apply when going month to month, think again. The ONLY clause Verizon cannot enforce legally is the one involving termination fees or any financial obligation for a phone which was purchased on monthly installments (leases are a different story), while all other terms and conditions are active for as long as the customer stays and pays for the service. 1) You have a link or something cause did not see anything like that in the auction agreement information on FCC websitelots of other stuff but nothing about your statement. So 2) Yes they are Title II whop whop!! However, while FCC has jurisdiction over them they specifically suspended the conditions regarding consumer pricing and availability in order to make the whole open internet initiative more palatable. Which means not much meat on that for them to possibly destroy the open internet initiative for a very small fraction of consumers.

The ATT and Verizon are two vastly different cases and the only crossover between them would be grandfathered plan. So, saying they are logically similar is like saying a motorcycle is the same as a 18-wheeler insofar as they both have wheels. The rest of your statements at the end are just non-rational extremes that really don’t need to be addressed, HOWEVER. This statement “customers they must have a minimum income and not live in neighborhoods where they cannot make their desired revenue in order to kep service is perfectly legal?” yea You are aware that IS a VALID and CURRENT business practice employed by Verizon and ATT, right now?!

So that is not a hypothetical that is the reason why you had Google Fiber rollout trying to combat that practice that has left millions of homes without internet access. I mention that because FCC recently reported on that but. Did nothing to alleviate it. Yea, those customers they are about to AX are screwed because some do it because of the providing High Speed internet to them is not profitable for providers. Most people are not in contracts anymore and they Verizon has canceled contracts on people before and just waived the ETF.

The new way of doing thing is with financing the phone and that isn’t a contract. Also when you sign a contract with Verizon it is because Verizon is giving you a $700 device for say $200 and if you leave they need you to cover some of the difference. It wasn’t a contract where Verizon promised to give you service for 2 years.

As far as I know (lots of time in the industry and watching Verizon and other carriers do this before) any carrier can terminate you if they want to With Verizon claiming their average customer uses around 3GB of data well If someone is using 10x that for the same amount then they need to go somewhere else. Sprint has truly unlimited data! Even with a 2yr contract, you still don’t have any right. The contract is strictly for the carriers benefit, it states in black and white that they can terminate any line or account they wish at any time VZW wishes and that you give up all rights to sue. TL;DR you aren’t successfully going to sue them for anything and you’ll be on the hook for the legal fees incurred by VZW.

————————- Long version Verbatim, from the customer agreement: Can Verizon Wireless change this Agreement or my Service? We may change prices or any other term of your Service or this agreement at any time, but we’ll provide notice first, including written notice if you have Postpay Service.

If you use your Service after the change takes effect, that means you’re accepting the change. If you’re a Postpay customer and a change to your Plan or this agreement has a material adverse effect on you, you can cancel the line of Service that has been affected within 60 days of receiving the notice with no early termination fee if we fail to negate the change after you notify us of your objection to it. Notwithstanding this provision, if we make any changes to the dispute resolution provision of this Agreement, such changes will not affect the resolution of any disputes that arose before such change. What are Verizon Wireless rights to limit or end service or end this Agreement? I used to work for Verizon. Their customer agreement, which is available here: is what determines your rights and VZW’s rights after a contract has ended.

It very clearly states that they can change your service options at any time as long as they give written notice. “Can Verizon Wireless change this Agreement or my Service?

We may change prices or any other term of your Service or this agreement at any time, but we’ll provide notice first, including written notice if you have Postpay Service. If you use your Service after the change takes effect, that means you’re accepting the change.” Also, further down the agreement reads: “What are Verizon Wireless rights to limit or end service or end this Agreement? Honestly, I’ve had Verizon since the 1X CDMA days, I had their first camera flip-phone, and have been a data subscriber since the early Blackberry days. They have put absolutely zero effort into making their network better over the past several years, and with subscribers, lines all going up. They’re hurting nobody but themselves.

I don’t think it’s congestion so much as it is a lack of backbone to keep it up and running, all this talk of 5G already, and I can barely get LTE at my house, which used to be a great spot for Verizon. They stopped being the best carrier when I did the T-Mo test drive and I had full LTE at my house that was 5-7x as fast, and WiFi calling. There are a lot more dead spots with T-Mo in my area, mostly due to Band 12 being blocked by an old TV station that needs to die. Let me first say I am pissed. I have unlimited data and I use between 10 and 30 gigs per month so I am not a happy guy reading this article.

But I have to give Verizon credit right now. I am not sure where you live (guessing Indiana), but I have to disagree with you. Out of the 4 major carriers, Verizon has been, by far, the carrier improving their network the most over the past 2 years. They have deployed small cells in every city from New York to Hastings, MI. I am from Louisville. Over the past 2 years, they have put up 21 new cell sites in our city.

That is almost a new cell tower per month! Not to mention all their small cells they’ve deployed.

T-Mobile has been the second best that I have witnessed, but they are mainly just throwing up new spectrum (B12 or B2) or new cell sites. They aren’t surgically placing small cells like Verizon. I have seen Verizon also improve massively in Indy. Same deal with new sites and small cells, and they’ve got a 10×10 running on PCS there too!

AgainI am not thrilled to read this and I will gladly port my lines over somewhere else if they want to do this because, like you, I have been with Verizon since before they deployed 3G-EVDO in Louisville. So I definitely feel your pain. I do not think T-Mobile will be able to keep up with all their new customers. I have T-Mobile as well and they are slowing down MASSIVELY across the country mainly because all they have is their legacy cell tower grid, a bunch of AWS, and maybe a 5×5 of 700 depending on your locale. AWS-3 will help them, but small cells are the winner when it comes to the future (and being the fastest network), and only Verizon is getting that right. I hope I fly under the radar with my usage, but I know I cant be on this legacy unlimited Verizon plan forever. But ya know what?

The reason Verizon can deploy all these small cells and continuously win the network awards is because they make a crap-ton of money from their users. So it comes back to “you get what you pay for” I guess. It sucks to hear VZW isn’t great where you are, because in all my travels, they are easily the best- no question. But if I were in your shoes, not exactly thrilled with the service, I would surely walk away.

Good luck to ya. You act like someone in their home could take down Verizon’s entire LTE network for the area.

If you tried to consume all bandwidth available 24/7, assume you get 50Mbps down, you’d be using 15TB per month, and realistically no one could even come close to that if they tried. Besides, that’s just one band out of 1-3 that may be available depending on your area, and on one sector out of typically 3. There likely aren’t more than a handful of unlimited data users in a city anyways, and you can see how small of a problem this would actually be. I would get home internet if I could. I live in the center of a rural road 1 mile long with cable internet on both sides. When I bought my property the cable company said it was available to my property.

After the home was built and they came out to install is when the installer said not down our road. They then told us for 12-15k they would run the line to us. I have Verizon’s home broadband service with 30gb plus 4 smartphones, 2 with unlimited data. My bill is over $450 per month. With 3 kids in school, internet is a necessity and not a choice. My UDP is needed and how we average 200GB per month.

Had that at last house before we moved for 7 years. Worst experience other than dial up and if you have issues (which is constant) you are talking to someone reading a script in India. I swore I would rather slit my wrists before I hear another customer service agent say”look out your window for the weather-is it raining?

I would tell them it was clear and sunny when I called and they would still read script to look out the window. And you only get a gig a day and then throttled for next 24 hours worse than dial up unless you by a “token” for an extra 10 bucks to remove the throttle. Are you kidding meall for only $130 a month. And the latencyugh. Where is all the government money for internet in rural areas going.in greedy pockets of course.

My area is not even rural. High speed cable less than 1/2 mile and DSL as well.just not down my street as we only have 12 houses in a mile strip. Except in California where all unilateral contract changes, including implied, tacit and verbal ones are illegal.

In fact both parties must agree to the change explicitly by agreeing to the change, or the changing party must either keep the contract the same for the remaining term (if a contract goes month to month as part of the original deal in the contract, it must remain the same month to month perpetually as well) or pay out the other party to break the contract (customers do this but carriers never have). This is contractual law in California but carriers will rarely ever follow it or mention it.

You’d have to take them to court to uphold it. Actually the bar down the road does NOT have “the right to refuse service to anyone,” at least in the United States.

The US is covered by the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination by privately owned places of public accommodation on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin. That includes the bar down the road. Similarly, Verizon while a private company is still subject to FCC regulation of all the spectrum that it licenses. If these unlimited users were still under contract, the FCC could very well enforce the “unlimited” element of those contracts. The reason Verizon can get away with this is that they long ago allowed all those contracts to lapse.

Not sure what the FCC or DOJ could do about it. The accounts involved are out of contract, so Verizon has a lot of flexibility in suspending service on them. I’m sure their argument is that excessive usage is impacting quality of service to all other users of their network – although I’ll be interested in seeing how they define “extraordinary” amounts of data. I agree that unlimited means unlimited; but running your entire home network and streaming movies onto multiple televisions in a household at once, just because you can (as some people have claimed to be doing) would appear excessive to me, and would negatively impact available bandwidth available to others on those same towers. What I want to know: are they legitimately only going after unlimited users who are abusing the network, or is this the first wave of forced migrations to end unlimited on their network entirely?

They claim they will be notifying a “small group” of customers but last I heard, they were also saying that only a “small group” of customers are even on unlimited at this point. So, theoretically, this could impact all unlimited users.

I have a couple issues with how my internet is behaving. For one, sometimes when I download a game, it will start out at decently high speeds, at about 20 MB/s, and monitoring through Steam, I see that it suddenly stops, and then instantly drops to 3 MB/s. Not only that, but my brother, in the same house, on the same network, both of us using wired connections, gets much faster downloads than I do. Neither of us have any special LAN connectors other than what our motherboards came with.

I'm not sure how he seems to get an advantage. I can think of no logical reason your brother should have a faster connection unless you setup STEAM to throttle the download speed on your computer. (MS STORE in W10 has a great APP to pin to the Start Menu. It's free, and just shows an icon like the circle shown.

Handy) Run the test more than once on both computers just to confirm your download speed (Mbps is 8x higher than MBps, so if it says 3MBps it should be 24Mbps) Often a speed like '20MBps' is an incorrect reporting after which the data averages out properly showing the actual value. Same thing often happens just copying files locally. Questions: 1. What do you both get for SPEEDTEST (run at least 3x each at separate times with no download running. See Task manager to look at network traffic.

Should be less than say 100KBps) 2. What is your best, sustained download through STEAM 3.

What is your best, sustained download anywhere else (should be same or close to the SPEED TEST result) 4. Note that STEAM will vary based on the day and time.