Verizon Begins Throttling Wireless Users, Effectively Bans 4K Streaming

Broadband

from the goodbye,-net-neutrality dept

Thanks to a little something called competition, Verizon Wireless was forced recently to bring back unlimited data plans, after spending the last few years trying to tell consumers they neither wanted nor needed such plans (narrator: they did). But all has not been well in Verizon-land since, with several network performance reports indicating that Verizon’s network configuration was struggling a little under the load of these new unlimited users. That’s a problem for a company that justifies its higher prices by insisting it offers the best-available wireless network.

A few weeks back, customers complained when Verizon began throttling YouTube and Netflix customers without telling anybody, only to subsequently admit they were conducting a “test.” Fast forward to this week, and Verizon Wireless has announced a complete revamp of its “unlimited” data plans that severely restrict how your mobile connection can be used.

The short version: Verizon is moving away from its fairly decent, competition-induced unlimited data plan (which generally let you do what you wanted with your connection), and replacing it with three, worse “unlimited” options:

A few things of note. One, with this move, Verizon is joining the rest of the wireless sector in charging you more money to use your wireless connection as you’d like, requiring you pay $10 more just to stream HD video as transmitted. Two, the company is effectively banning 4K streaming, and no matter what kind of device you’re using, won’t be delivering more than 10 Mbps to any traffic Verizon’s network gear identifies as video. So, if for some reason you wanted fully unthrottled video from a company server — there’s no way to get it. Verizon’s not letting you access unthrottled video, period.

On its surface, this isn’t something most consumers will notice… yet. The difference between 720p and 1080p on a small smartphone screen is negligible, so Verizon quite correctly assumes that most customers won’t care. It’s also worth noting that even under former FCC boss Tom Wheeler and his 2015 rules, the FCC was turning a blind eye to both this (charging users more to avoid having games, video and music throttled) and zero rating (exempting an ISPs own content from usage caps while hindering competitors), something we have repeatedly stated was a mistake that would come back to bite consumers eventually.

The bigger issue moving forward is of the slippery slope variety. Today, Verizon has decided that it’s the one that gets to determine how much more you get to pay for higher-quality video, or if you have the option at all. With the company at the vanguard of an assault on existing net neutrality protections, you can be guaranteed that restrictions like this will only grow. The value proposition will also steadily decline as Verizon takes full advantage of Ajit Pai’s quest to free some of the least liked, and most anti-competitive companies in America of most meaningful regulatory oversight .

With said oversight on vacation, that leaves it to competition to keep Verizon Wireless on its best behavior. But with those same apathetic regulators resulting in a wave of almost-mindless merger mania, there’s no indication that competition will be sticking around. Once Sprint merges with T-Mobile (which most expect to happen this year), there’s going to be less pressure than ever on Verizon to avoid hamstringing your wireless connection further. So while you might not care about what Verizon’s doing today, the company is only laying the foundation for some truly obnoxious behavior you’re going to care a lot about tomorrow.

Filed Under: 4k, net neutrality, throttling
Companies: verizon