What's Up With Verizon Wireless Throttling Its Heaviest Users?

Verizon's well-orchestrated buzz-building campaign for its iPhone launch yesterday hit a speed bump as stories began to circulate that even though it was promoting an unlimited data plan as a differentiator, it would actually throttle its heaviest users. Verizon's official policy is that "if you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5% of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high-quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand."

Now, granted, few Verizon subscribers will be affected by this, but really, this doesn't seem like a smart approach. It would be understandable if these heavy users were doing something illegitimate like downloading video from pirated sites. But that's not what Verizon is saying. Under the policy, users doing nothing more than legitimately taking advantage of the unlimited offer, will be penalized. Isn't it therefore misleading to advertise this as an "unlimited" service and ultimately a bad PR move? While I'm no fan of net neutrality, I will say that this is where I think the FCC has a bona fide opportunity to step in. Consumers have the right to get what they expect.

Categories: Devices, Telcos

Topics: iPhone, Verizon Wireless