I get there through work, and when I bought the phone, I explained clearly what I'd be using the device for. Not a word about bandwidth throttling, or anything about going over 5gb a month being bad.
This is pure unadulterated bullshit, and an example of what a republican America is like. Unlimited data? SURE! At 10kbps! LOL
What does Verizon screwing their customers have to do with Republican America? Republicans have controlled the house for a month and I don't recall any telecom initiatives yet. Dems still control the senate, the WH and the FCC. Ofcourse all of this is irrelevant since neither party has anything to do with Verizon's terms of service. Verizopn is still a private company and there are no regulations that force them to offer a specific data plan.
"the optimization process may minimally impact the appearance of the file as displayed on your device"
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!!
Verizon is changing your content! Who are they to decide what is acceptable image degradation? So much for the iPhone's high resolution camera and retina displays. Apparently Verizon has decided that you don't need to zoom in on photos because you have a display with a small physical screen size. Why engineer products with quality lenses, image sensors and compression algorithms when Verizon is destroying the results AFTER the image file has been generated by the creator?
This represents a MAJOR paradigm shift in network connectivity as we know it. Now Verizon is a part of the content creation process in that they can apply post-production techniques (like transcoding) to content as it passes through their network. Will Verizon decide next that they can save bandwidth (read $$$) by eliminating words from a text if they feel the deletions will "minimally impact" the meaning a written work? This is simply unbelievable!!!
In addition, their "optimization" process is not without a time penalty. It takes time (no matter how brief) to transcode images and other content making communications slower. Ever get annoyed waiting for your "fast" laser printer to produce the first page?
They have also introduced another source of failure in the content delivery process. In the future you may hear "... we're sorry that the delivery of an important image or video was delayed by an outage in our 'optimization' system...".
I am saddened, angered and frankly sickened by this turn of events and I will do everything I can to spread awareness of this despicable practice.
Verizon, manage your network, not my content!!!
On a personal note, If have just decided NOT to move from AT&T to Verizon.
(BTW: I have Masters degrees in both electrical engineering and software engineering and have written a JPEG codec (and other JPEG manipulation software) completely from scratch so I am intimately familiar with the performance issues and trade-offs associated with this particular image compression technology.)
But the top 5% threshold could mean you would hit Verizon's throttling well before you hit 2gb, possibly before you hit 1 gb. Only 2% of AT&T's data hogs exceed the 2GB, so at 3 GB you would be one of the top hogs. Hows that feel?
This is something which requires clarification. Presumably, they will only throttle data rates for users who exceed the caps but it is not clear in their statement.
What does Verizon screwing their customers have to do with Republican America? Republicans have controlled the house for a month and I don't recall any telecom initiatives yet. Dems still control the senate, the WH and the FCC. Ofcourse all of this is irrelevant since neither party has anything to do with Verizon's terms of service. Verizopn is still a private company and there are no regulations that force them to offer a specific data plan.
Net neutrality, my friend. For months upon months, republicans/Fox News have been saying net neutrality is a government take over of the internet. They see how calling the healthcare bill a government takeover of healthcare has fooled the foolish, and so they said the same thing over and over about net neutrality.
What was passed was a "compromise" where republicans got their way with wireless bandwidth, and Verizon is immediately acting on it.
See, net neutrality basically means the ones who provide access to the internet cannot selectively limit the speed at which we can connect to parts of the internet, or even the whole internet. It would have meant that companies like verizon cannot limit our access to information. The republicans, since they sell America out to corporations, have been spreading misinformation about this ever since it became an issue.
Thank God in heaven they didn't get their way entirely, or things like this would be seen on landlines as well, but either way, wireless is booming and growing and I'm not alone in saying most of my connectivity is through wireless these days.
In addition to the new bandwidth throttling methods for the most active users, Verizon also announced on Thursday that it is implementing new optimization and transcoding technologies in its network to transmit data files in a more efficient manner. Through caching less data, using less capacity, and sizing video more appropriately for devices, Verizon said it hopes to streamline its network.
"The optimization process is agnostic to the content itself and to the website that provides it," the carrier said. "While we invest much effort to avoid changing text, image, and video files in the compression process and while any change to the file is likely to be indiscernible, the optimization process may minimally impact the appearance of the file as displayed on your device."
Does this mean that Verizon will be compressing all those "gorgeous photos" and HD video which they are sponsoring on The Daily. So much was made about the high quality and now, it seems, the carrier can simply choose to lower the quality of such content.
And exactly how much will they throttle these customers? Will they throttle them all the way down to a crawl just so Verizon doesn't look like an idiot when iPhones start crippling their network.
This is going to be fun to watch! Sounds like Verizon ain't so confident now that they actually have to walk the walk with the world's most popular smartphone.
So in addition to already having much slower data speeds than AT&T they're going to throttle that even more if you're in the top 5%. And I'm assuming this would apply to people who are already paying a premium for larger data plans - wow.
I expect to see more and more of these kinds of measures (throttled bandwidth, tiered data plans, closer scrutiny of data use patterns with possible sanctions) as time goes on, and on every carrier (expect the desperate for subscribers which will always be willing to wheel and deal).
The fact is, the explosion in smart phone use means an explosion in data usage, and those usage rates are rising faster than the carriers can build out capacity. It's not just more phones, it's more data per phone. One researcher reckons a 700% increase per phone in the next five years, and then you have to factor in four times as many phones using that extra data. Anyone indignant about cell carriers not plowing more of their profits into capacity should consider what it would take to actual increase that capacity 20 fold in a few years, because those are the kinds of increases we're looking at.
At some point, either pricing rises enough to limit use or top users get throttled. I don't really see this as a specifically Verizon thing. Now that Verizon has gone public, there's no reason for AT&T not to do likewise, if they haven't already.
Claiming generous data policies is a good bit of customer attracting PR, but neither AT&T or Verizon can afford to just let everyone get a smart phone and use them indiscriminately.
Net neutrality, my friend. For months upon months, republicans/Fox News have been saying net neutrality is a government take over of the internet. They see how calling the healthcare bill a government takeover of healthcare has fooled the foolish, and so they said the same thing over and over about net neutrality.
What was passed was a "compromise" where republicans got their way with wireless bandwidth, and Verizon is immediately acting on it.
See, net neutrality basically means the ones who provide access to the internet cannot selectively limit the speed at which we can connect to parts of the internet, or even the whole internet. It would have meant that companies like verizon cannot limit our access to information. The republicans, since they sell America out to corporations, have been spreading misinformation about this ever since it became an issue.
Thank God in heaven they didn't get their way entirely, or things like this would be seen on landlines as well, but either way, wireless is booming and growing and I'm not alone in saying most of my connectivity is through wireless these days.
You know absolutely NOTHING about what you are talking about. Net neutrality has nothing to do with bandwidth speeds, data caps, pricing or anything that Verizon is changing. If Verizon said they were going to limit VOIP traffic speeds or access to Yahoo, THAT is net neutrality. Data caps or throttling that is not application or protocal specific is content neutral.
Your political knowlege is pretty lacking too. You might want to look at who corporations funnel money too. You will find Democrats take as much or more from corporations as the Reps and they get as much back for their investment. There are different companies on both sides of net neutrality just like any other issue and you can be darn sure what is best for the customer was not a priority in anyones vote no matter how they voted.
You know absolutely NOTHING about what you are talking about. Net neutrality has nothing to do with bandwidth speeds, data caps, pricing or anything that Verizon is changing. If Verizon said they were going to limit VOIP traffic speeds or access to Yahoo, THAT is net neutrality. Data caps or throttling that is not application or protocal specific is content neutral.
Your political knowlege is pretty lacking too. You might want to look at who corporations funnel money too. You will find Democrats take as much or more from corporations as the Reps and they get as much back for their investment. There are different companies on both sides of net neutrality just like any other issue and you can be darn sure what is best for the customer was not a priority in anyones vote no matter how they voted.
Nope, this is a direct result of what was passed. Wireless is untouched, and so Verizon can limit bandwidth to whom they choose.
It's not just access to single sites, it's bandwidth speeds all together. They are limiting access to the ENTIRE internet, which according to net neutrality, is something they wouldn't be able to do.
As far as telling me my political knowledge is lacking. I literally laughed LOUDLY at that. There's a difference between who backs the Democrats (whom I don't like as well) and who backs republicans. Definitely.
Hey remember when Boehner handed out checks from Tobacco companies to congressmen on the House floor!? I wonder how much money they gave to Democrats... hmmm... Face it, republicans would sell their soul to Satan if he ran a corporation and offered them money.
"The optimization process is agnostic to the content itself and to the website that provides it," the carrier said. "While we invest much effort to avoid changing text, image, and video files in the compression process and while any change to the file is likely to be indiscernible, the optimization process may minimally impact the appearance of the file as displayed on your device."
Comments
They can/will reduce the resolution, framerate or video quality.
Okay, gotcha.
By lowering the quality of the media.
I get there through work, and when I bought the phone, I explained clearly what I'd be using the device for. Not a word about bandwidth throttling, or anything about going over 5gb a month being bad.
This is pure unadulterated bullshit, and an example of what a republican America is like. Unlimited data? SURE! At 10kbps! LOL
What does Verizon screwing their customers have to do with Republican America? Republicans have controlled the house for a month and I don't recall any telecom initiatives yet. Dems still control the senate, the WH and the FCC. Ofcourse all of this is irrelevant since neither party has anything to do with Verizon's terms of service. Verizopn is still a private company and there are no regulations that force them to offer a specific data plan.
"the optimization process may minimally impact the appearance of the file as displayed on your device"
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!!
Verizon is changing your content! Who are they to decide what is acceptable image degradation? So much for the iPhone's high resolution camera and retina displays. Apparently Verizon has decided that you don't need to zoom in on photos because you have a display with a small physical screen size. Why engineer products with quality lenses, image sensors and compression algorithms when Verizon is destroying the results AFTER the image file has been generated by the creator?
This represents a MAJOR paradigm shift in network connectivity as we know it. Now Verizon is a part of the content creation process in that they can apply post-production techniques (like transcoding) to content as it passes through their network. Will Verizon decide next that they can save bandwidth (read $$$) by eliminating words from a text if they feel the deletions will "minimally impact" the meaning a written work? This is simply unbelievable!!!
In addition, their "optimization" process is not without a time penalty. It takes time (no matter how brief) to transcode images and other content making communications slower. Ever get annoyed waiting for your "fast" laser printer to produce the first page?
They have also introduced another source of failure in the content delivery process. In the future you may hear "... we're sorry that the delivery of an important image or video was delayed by an outage in our 'optimization' system...".
I am saddened, angered and frankly sickened by this turn of events and I will do everything I can to spread awareness of this despicable practice.
Verizon, manage your network, not my content!!!
On a personal note, If have just decided NOT to move from AT&T to Verizon.
(BTW: I have Masters degrees in both electrical engineering and software engineering and have written a JPEG codec (and other JPEG manipulation software) completely from scratch so I am intimately familiar with the performance issues and trade-offs associated with this particular image compression technology.)
But the top 5% threshold could mean you would hit Verizon's throttling well before you hit 2gb, possibly before you hit 1 gb. Only 2% of AT&T's data hogs exceed the 2GB, so at 3 GB you would be one of the top hogs. Hows that feel?
This is something which requires clarification. Presumably, they will only throttle data rates for users who exceed the caps but it is not clear in their statement.
What does Verizon screwing their customers have to do with Republican America? Republicans have controlled the house for a month and I don't recall any telecom initiatives yet. Dems still control the senate, the WH and the FCC. Ofcourse all of this is irrelevant since neither party has anything to do with Verizon's terms of service. Verizopn is still a private company and there are no regulations that force them to offer a specific data plan.
Net neutrality, my friend. For months upon months, republicans/Fox News have been saying net neutrality is a government take over of the internet. They see how calling the healthcare bill a government takeover of healthcare has fooled the foolish, and so they said the same thing over and over about net neutrality.
What was passed was a "compromise" where republicans got their way with wireless bandwidth, and Verizon is immediately acting on it.
See, net neutrality basically means the ones who provide access to the internet cannot selectively limit the speed at which we can connect to parts of the internet, or even the whole internet. It would have meant that companies like verizon cannot limit our access to information. The republicans, since they sell America out to corporations, have been spreading misinformation about this ever since it became an issue.
Thank God in heaven they didn't get their way entirely, or things like this would be seen on landlines as well, but either way, wireless is booming and growing and I'm not alone in saying most of my connectivity is through wireless these days.
In addition to the new bandwidth throttling methods for the most active users, Verizon also announced on Thursday that it is implementing new optimization and transcoding technologies in its network to transmit data files in a more efficient manner. Through caching less data, using less capacity, and sizing video more appropriately for devices, Verizon said it hopes to streamline its network.
"The optimization process is agnostic to the content itself and to the website that provides it," the carrier said. "While we invest much effort to avoid changing text, image, and video files in the compression process and while any change to the file is likely to be indiscernible, the optimization process may minimally impact the appearance of the file as displayed on your device."
Does this mean that Verizon will be compressing all those "gorgeous photos" and HD video which they are sponsoring on The Daily. So much was made about the high quality and now, it seems, the carrier can simply choose to lower the quality of such content.
This is going to be fun to watch! Sounds like Verizon ain't so confident now that they actually have to walk the walk with the world's most popular smartphone.
So in addition to already having much slower data speeds than AT&T they're going to throttle that even more if you're in the top 5%. And I'm assuming this would apply to people who are already paying a premium for larger data plans - wow.
The fact is, the explosion in smart phone use means an explosion in data usage, and those usage rates are rising faster than the carriers can build out capacity. It's not just more phones, it's more data per phone. One researcher reckons a 700% increase per phone in the next five years, and then you have to factor in four times as many phones using that extra data. Anyone indignant about cell carriers not plowing more of their profits into capacity should consider what it would take to actual increase that capacity 20 fold in a few years, because those are the kinds of increases we're looking at.
At some point, either pricing rises enough to limit use or top users get throttled. I don't really see this as a specifically Verizon thing. Now that Verizon has gone public, there's no reason for AT&T not to do likewise, if they haven't already.
Claiming generous data policies is a good bit of customer attracting PR, but neither AT&T or Verizon can afford to just let everyone get a smart phone and use them indiscriminately.
Net neutrality, my friend. For months upon months, republicans/Fox News have been saying net neutrality is a government take over of the internet. They see how calling the healthcare bill a government takeover of healthcare has fooled the foolish, and so they said the same thing over and over about net neutrality.
What was passed was a "compromise" where republicans got their way with wireless bandwidth, and Verizon is immediately acting on it.
See, net neutrality basically means the ones who provide access to the internet cannot selectively limit the speed at which we can connect to parts of the internet, or even the whole internet. It would have meant that companies like verizon cannot limit our access to information. The republicans, since they sell America out to corporations, have been spreading misinformation about this ever since it became an issue.
Thank God in heaven they didn't get their way entirely, or things like this would be seen on landlines as well, but either way, wireless is booming and growing and I'm not alone in saying most of my connectivity is through wireless these days.
You know absolutely NOTHING about what you are talking about. Net neutrality has nothing to do with bandwidth speeds, data caps, pricing or anything that Verizon is changing. If Verizon said they were going to limit VOIP traffic speeds or access to Yahoo, THAT is net neutrality. Data caps or throttling that is not application or protocal specific is content neutral.
Your political knowlege is pretty lacking too. You might want to look at who corporations funnel money too. You will find Democrats take as much or more from corporations as the Reps and they get as much back for their investment. There are different companies on both sides of net neutrality just like any other issue and you can be darn sure what is best for the customer was not a priority in anyones vote no matter how they voted.
You know absolutely NOTHING about what you are talking about. Net neutrality has nothing to do with bandwidth speeds, data caps, pricing or anything that Verizon is changing. If Verizon said they were going to limit VOIP traffic speeds or access to Yahoo, THAT is net neutrality. Data caps or throttling that is not application or protocal specific is content neutral.
Your political knowlege is pretty lacking too. You might want to look at who corporations funnel money too. You will find Democrats take as much or more from corporations as the Reps and they get as much back for their investment. There are different companies on both sides of net neutrality just like any other issue and you can be darn sure what is best for the customer was not a priority in anyones vote no matter how they voted.
Nope, this is a direct result of what was passed. Wireless is untouched, and so Verizon can limit bandwidth to whom they choose.
It's not just access to single sites, it's bandwidth speeds all together. They are limiting access to the ENTIRE internet, which according to net neutrality, is something they wouldn't be able to do.
As far as telling me my political knowledge is lacking. I literally laughed LOUDLY at that. There's a difference between who backs the Democrats (whom I don't like as well) and who backs republicans. Definitely.
Hey remember when Boehner handed out checks from Tobacco companies to congressmen on the House floor!? I wonder how much money they gave to Democrats... hmmm... Face it, republicans would sell their soul to Satan if he ran a corporation and offered them money.
"The optimization process is agnostic to the content itself and to the website that provides it," the carrier said. "While we invest much effort to avoid changing text, image, and video files in the compression process and while any change to the file is likely to be indiscernible, the optimization process may minimally impact the appearance of the file as displayed on your device."
I see a difference easily.
http://www.wired.com/reviews/2011/02...phone/?pid=750
http://www.wired.com/reviews/2011/02...phone/?pid=751
Blame it on Verizon's slower network or Verizon's interposed compression, it still looks awful.