Hello, Data Hog! Verizon’s About to Slow You Down [Verizon]

a major perk of Verizon over AT&T-besides phone calls -is unlimited smartphone data versus AT&T’s 2GB cap . But! In the event you’re pulling too much data, Verizon will slow your roll . It is how Verizon’s making ready for the iPhone flood .

Specifically, a PDF on Verizon’s site spotted by Boy Genius says:

If you utilize a rare amount of information and fall in the top 5% of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the rest of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to be certain tremendous network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand.

They won’t stop you from flattening 10GB a month over your smartphone. But they’re going to make a piece harder to tug that much data down inside the first place. The question is, how much data puts you within the top 5 percent? One study from July would put people using more than 2GB of knowledge on Verizon’s network within the top 5 percent of knowledge users. (That’s, notably, in regards to the same as AT&T’s data cap.)

The more thing Verizon’s doing to control data is ” implementing optimization and transcoding technologies in our network to transmit data files in a more efficient manner,” doing things like ” include caching less data, using less capacity, and sizing the video more appropriately for the device.” Sounds fine! Except:

While we invest much effort to bypass changing text, image, and video files inside the compression process and while any change to the file could be indiscernible, the optimization process may minimally impact the advent of the file as displayed for your device. For an additional, more detailed explanation of these techniques, please visit www.verizonwireless.com/vzwoptimization.

Right now, that link’s dead, so we’ll need to wait and spot what here is going to mean in detail.

It’s an enticing set of tradeoffs: With Verizon, you get unlimited data and better phone calls, but you can get slowed down and there’s a bet some files will look weird. With AT&T, in case you can get a connection, it’s going to be faster, but you’re going to pay for every byte. Sprint’s unlimited plans are looking pretty good right about now! (Cue question: When are they getting the iPhone???) [ VZW via BGR ]

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This post is tagged: billing cycle, data throughput, detailed explanation, network performance, throughput speeds, verizon wireless, wireless data users