Verizon Wireless introducing new unlimited plans at the same time as video throttling meas...
Verizon Wireless is changing its unlimited plan by splitting it into multiple tiers from Wednesday onwards, while at the same time the carrier is also preparing to throttle the quality of streaming video for all customers, including those staying on the existing unlimited plan.
The current Verizon Unlimited plan, introduced in February, will be split down into three slightly different plans: Go Unlimited, Beyond Unlimited, and Business Unlimited. According to The Verge, as of August 23, new customers will have to choose one of these three new plans, with Verizon Unlimited becoming unavailable on that date.
The Go Unlimited plan will start at $75 per month for one line, reducing down to $65 per line for two lines, $50 per line for three lines, and $40 per line for four or more lines. Under the plan, subscribers get unlimited minutes and texts, and while they get unlimited 4G LTE data and unlimited usage of their mobile device as a hotspot, the tethering speeds are limited to 600kbps, and the overall LTE speed can be reduced if the network is congested.
Beyond Unlimited increases the monthly cost to $85 for one line, $80 per line for two, $60 per line for three, and $50 per line for four or more lines. This plan also benefits from free calling, texting, and data when roaming in Canada and Mexico, the congestion-related slowdown only occurs once the plan's usage exceeds 22 gigabytes in a billing cycle, and the hotspot data is accessible at LTE speeds for up to 15GB before being restricted.
The third plan, Business Unlimited, starts from $45 per month per line, and is similar to Beyond Unlimited in terms of its standard features. Notably, this plan caps the LTE speeds for the hotspot at 10GB, 15GB for those on two-year contracts, and has a higher threshold of 25GB in a billing cycle before congestion-induced bandwidth restrictions commence.
Notably, Verizon is also introducing bandwidth throttling to all of its unlimited plans that affects just streaming video.
According to Verizon's press release, the video on Go Unlimited will be of "DVD quality," described at 480p for videos viewed on smartphones and 720p on tablets. For Beyond Unlimited and legacy plans like Verizon Unlimited, the video feeds will be limited to 720p on phones, and 1080p on tablets, with notebooks tethered to the mobile device also limited to 1080p streams.
"We're doing this to ensure all customers have a great experience on our network since there is no significant difference in quality on a smartphone or tablet when video is shown at higher resolutions," claims the carrier.
The restriction of video bandwidth is not a new concept, as both T-Mobile and AT&T throttle videos down to as low as 480p on some plans, in an effort to manage the available bandwidth across their networks. Verizon's own prepaid unlimited plan, launched in April of this year, already transcodes all video streams to a 720p resolution, while also compressing audio streams from online music services.
In July, it was discovered Verizon Wireless was trialing its video throttling systems on users watching streams from Netflix and YouTube, limiting video feeds to around 10Mbps. While this is enough bandwidth to handle a 1080p video stream, users at the time endured buffering of 1440p-resolution videos.
Notably during the testing period, one user discovered that they could circumvent the throttling restriction by using a VPN. It remains to be seen if the same technique can be used once the new plans go live.
The current Verizon Unlimited plan, introduced in February, will be split down into three slightly different plans: Go Unlimited, Beyond Unlimited, and Business Unlimited. According to The Verge, as of August 23, new customers will have to choose one of these three new plans, with Verizon Unlimited becoming unavailable on that date.
The Go Unlimited plan will start at $75 per month for one line, reducing down to $65 per line for two lines, $50 per line for three lines, and $40 per line for four or more lines. Under the plan, subscribers get unlimited minutes and texts, and while they get unlimited 4G LTE data and unlimited usage of their mobile device as a hotspot, the tethering speeds are limited to 600kbps, and the overall LTE speed can be reduced if the network is congested.
Beyond Unlimited increases the monthly cost to $85 for one line, $80 per line for two, $60 per line for three, and $50 per line for four or more lines. This plan also benefits from free calling, texting, and data when roaming in Canada and Mexico, the congestion-related slowdown only occurs once the plan's usage exceeds 22 gigabytes in a billing cycle, and the hotspot data is accessible at LTE speeds for up to 15GB before being restricted.
The third plan, Business Unlimited, starts from $45 per month per line, and is similar to Beyond Unlimited in terms of its standard features. Notably, this plan caps the LTE speeds for the hotspot at 10GB, 15GB for those on two-year contracts, and has a higher threshold of 25GB in a billing cycle before congestion-induced bandwidth restrictions commence.
Notably, Verizon is also introducing bandwidth throttling to all of its unlimited plans that affects just streaming video.
According to Verizon's press release, the video on Go Unlimited will be of "DVD quality," described at 480p for videos viewed on smartphones and 720p on tablets. For Beyond Unlimited and legacy plans like Verizon Unlimited, the video feeds will be limited to 720p on phones, and 1080p on tablets, with notebooks tethered to the mobile device also limited to 1080p streams.
"We're doing this to ensure all customers have a great experience on our network since there is no significant difference in quality on a smartphone or tablet when video is shown at higher resolutions," claims the carrier.
The restriction of video bandwidth is not a new concept, as both T-Mobile and AT&T throttle videos down to as low as 480p on some plans, in an effort to manage the available bandwidth across their networks. Verizon's own prepaid unlimited plan, launched in April of this year, already transcodes all video streams to a 720p resolution, while also compressing audio streams from online music services.
In July, it was discovered Verizon Wireless was trialing its video throttling systems on users watching streams from Netflix and YouTube, limiting video feeds to around 10Mbps. While this is enough bandwidth to handle a 1080p video stream, users at the time endured buffering of 1440p-resolution videos.
Notably during the testing period, one user discovered that they could circumvent the throttling restriction by using a VPN. It remains to be seen if the same technique can be used once the new plans go live.
Comments
I have no problem with Verizon implementing restrictions after a certain reasonable threshold is met, but dropping the axe for folks who haven't even used a lot of data during a billing cycle is downright moronic.
EDIT: Guess T-Mobile caps video streaming at 480 unless you pay an extra $10 a month for HD. Your data speeds aren't throttled until after 32GB.
When T-Mobile took down the tower, they offered us a cell booster. Eventually the third one worked. But because I was sharing my internet connection with "up to 16" neighbors, my "mini cell tower" inside my house would cause Netflix to buffer on the main TV. T-Mobile had no way to specify who leached off our home internet on their 4G LTE microcell so we switched to Sprint.
Not too many people are "in love" with sprint, but they have this "Free Unlimited" rateplan (only available online) through the end of this month. Once you sign up, you can also upgrade to new phone in 120 days- which is around Christmas time ;-)
Sprint isn't paying a salesperson a commission or advertising the plan, so many people don't know about it, and salespeople at the store will flat-out deny it exists. Use Google to search for "Sprint Free Unlimited" for the website to see if your phone would work. It's worth your time, and the price is right.
It's a no contract, post-paid (international roaming works) and all we pay is taxes- about $6 for us, includes unlimited service, hotspot, Sprint also roams on Verizon. It's worth considering because they extended the plan to the end of this month. You have to bring your own unlocked phone, but again it's no-contract.
Actually, as I continued reading, there are no refunds. Section 3 says 'MintSIM will order cheese cake for all the guests to take home after the lobster dinner.'
But it gets better. I just made it to Section 15 in the contract. 'On the way back to the office, you will provide MintSIM with upgrades- stretch Limousines back to the office.' Oh, and you also unconditionally submit to throttling, suspension, termination of service; MintSIM doesn't have to provide you with any notice.
MintSIM seems like a great rateplan for an ex.
It's like as if they are downloading like there is no tomorrow - and videos for that matter. Tons of it.
But when? while at the office?
Music doesn't take that much.
Images don't use that much traffic either.
Facebook? Maybe if you have 500+ "friends" and have the time going through meters and meters of scrolling.
Do these people ever work?
Either they use it home because they don't have a cable/DSL connection at home, or I really cannot get it.
BTW: 22GB fake "unlimited" plan for 75$ is quite the steal - in Germany you can get 10+GB for 25€. Post-paid, 1 month contract, major network.
Prices in the USA are insane. So much for competition...
Why is everybody not using pre-paid or similar solutions in the USA? why is everybody on a contract? Don't you have mobile virtual phone operators (like I see MintSim mentioned in a post)?