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Boost and Virgin throttling heavy data users to 128kb in May


dkyeager

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http://www.phonedog.com/2014/03/19/boost-mobile-virgin-mobile-to-slow-throttled-data-speeds-further-in-may/

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprints-boost-virgin-throttle-heavy-data-users-slower-speeds-starting-may/2014-03-20

 

http://www.wirelessweek.com/news/2014/03/confirmed-virgin-boost-intro-new-slower-speed-throttling-policies

 

http://www.phonenews.com/virgin-and-boost-mobile-to-enact-stricter-throttling-on-may-6th-26679/

 

It was 256kb.  128kb is ISDN speeds, 1 step above dial-up.  Still better than some legacy 3g, but a bit cheap.  These users are already lower priority on the Sprint network.  Users will get a message and be allowed to restart their plans with a new payment.

 

Would have thought it better to have reduced the cap to 2Gb and left the throttle speed at 256kb from a marketing perspective.

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This is probably just a move to keep them from steaming video and high quality music. Twitter, Mobile FB, and all the other plethora of social apps will work just fine on 128Kb/s (I've personally used much worse on Verizon's 3G before their big push to get everyone on LTE...the HTC Thunderbolt days were the dark ages of Verizon 3G)

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It's much faster then what Tmobile throttles you to. I get max about 20 kbps, and it's still quite fast enough to refresh facebook and check certain websites.

 

 

-Luis

I thought Tmobile didnt throttle. How do those users get 50 gb data bills on 20 kps. On 0.01953125 Mbps

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It's much faster then what Tmobile throttles you to. I get max about 20 kbps, and it's still quite fast enough to refresh facebook and check certain websites.

 

 

-Luis

Turn off 4G and you will get unthrottled edge which can be faster depending on the network but it's worth a try. 

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This is way overdue, abusers that rather say on the LTE network instead of using there home WiFi when available.  

 

A lot of people who use Boost or Virgin are too "poor" to afford home broadband.

 

AJ

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I like the move because it brings back value to a contract. You want speed, make a commitment and if you want to pay less you get less.

 

I remember the time when Boost offered $50 all inclusive while contract customers paid $100 for the same plus a little bit of roaming.

 

T-Mobile throttles their customers much more and I am sure if Sprint gets their network right, people will not mind. In addition while I am a heavy user most people use less in mobile data.

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128kbps is not 128 kB/s. KiloBITS per second versus KiloBYTES. (Capital "B")

 

128kbps = 16kB/s. So enough for e-mail, iMessage, and slow Facebook. It'll all be usable, but just suck. 

 

 

(Assuming kbps is the intended unit in these articles, not kB/s. It's usually hard to tell.)

 

 

It's much faster then what Tmobile throttles you to. I get max about 20 kbps, and it's still quite fast enough to refresh facebook and check certain websites.

 

 

-Luis

 

 

20kbps would be about 2.5 Kilobytes per second, which would be nearly useless. Gotta watch your units guys!

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Throttling is almost always preferred by customers over cutting people off when they go over their cap.  At least this still allows the phone to be used with small amounts of data.  Sprint should really throttle any user with a high amount of usage if the tower they are on is running at capacity at that time.

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I thought Tmobile didnt throttle. How do those users get 50 gb data bills on 20 kps. On 0.01953125 Mbps

Oh they do on some plans. I sometimes just fill $10, and get the $3 a day plan just to see if they've made any improvements, and they throttle after 200MB. I've been curious to as how slow it really is, and well it couldn't even complete speed test, or mmost web pages.
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Turn off 4G and you will get unthrottled edge which can be faster depending on the network but it's worth a try. 

The ping times on LTE are much faster than EDGE, normally around 52ms. I haven't tried on EDGE but I can imagine it's much higher cause of the nature of the technology.

 

 

-Luis

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Oh they do on some plans. I sometimes just fill $10, and get the $3 a day plan just to see if they've made any improvements, and they throttle after 200MB. I've been curious to as how slow it really is, and well it couldn't even complete speed test, or mmost web pages.

I think you're referring to the Free Tablet Data. After 200mb they do not throttle you, they cut you off (IIRC). So yeah refilling is the only way to go. On their smartphone basic plans is where you have "unlimited" data, but throttled after a certain amount, unless you're truly unlimited high speed.

 

 

-Luis

 

P.S. I apologize for all the replied I've made, I should have multiquoted.

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I think you're referring to the Free Tablet Data. After 200mb they do not throttle you, they cut you off (IIRC). So yeah refilling is the only way to go. On their smartphone basic plans is where you have "unlimited" data, but throttled after a certain amount, unless you're truly unlimited high speed.

 

 

-Luis

 

P.S. I apologize for all the replied I've made, I should have multiquoted.

No I just get the $3 day plan and use that for my nexus 5, easy as a switched Sim card. On the $3 unlimited everything but you only get 200MB of high speed data, but its all I need to test for improvements
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The ping times on LTE are much faster than EDGE, normally around 52ms. I haven't tried on EDGE but I can imagine it's much higher cause of the nature of the technology.

 

 

-Luis

The pings will be higher, somewhere between 200&300ms higher than lte BUT if you are on a capped 4g plan on tmobile and you have gone over your limit the 4g is throttled to under 200kbps, often quite a bit under. Switching to unthrottled edge used to actually allow for higher throughput (at the cost of latency), however this was before LTE (I switched to tmos unlimited a while back), refarming could have crippled edge but if someone is on tmo and has hit their cap it doesn't hurt to try edge. It would be terrible for voip but not so bad down caching a youtube video with tubemate or possibly some browsing.

 

When you say ping times do you mean the overhead inherent in the technology or that your ping is always around 52ms? Your ping time will depend what you are pinging as well as the overhead. The guys hitting 50-300GB a month are on the unlimited plan and in theory won't ever be throttled (unless I find them).

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The pings will be higher, somewhere between 200&300ms higher than lte BUT if you are on a capped 4g plan on tmobile and you have gone over your limit the 4g is throttled to under 200kbps, often quite a bit under. Switching to unthrottled edge used to actually allow for higher throughput (at the cost of latency), however this was before LTE (I switched to tmos unlimited a while back), refarming could have crippled edge but if someone is on tmo and has hit their cap it doesn't hurt to try edge. It would be terrible for voip but not so bad down caching a youtube video with tubemate or possibly some browsing.

 

When you say ping times do you mean the overhead inherent in the technology or that your ping is always around 52ms? Your ping time will depend what you are pinging as well as the overhead. The guys hitting 50-300GB a month are on the unlimited plan and in theory won't ever be throttled (unless I find them).

Hmm, I'll try it out next time I'm throttled down again. And I'm a little out of it atm so maybe I'm not making much sense. But even when throttled when doing speed test the ping times are normally 52ms.

 

 

-Luis

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Hmm, I'll try it out next time I'm throttled down again. And I'm a little out of it atm so maybe I'm not making much sense. But even when throttled when doing speed test the ping times are normally 52ms.

 

 

-Luis

 Yeah being throttled won't affect your pings :) I used to use skype on 4g when throttled but everything else on edge but that was a couple of years ago. 

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 Yeah being throttled won't affect your pings :) I used to use skype on 4g when throttled but everything else on edge but that was a couple of years ago. 

 

On AT&T after 6 GB on the unlimited plan, they throttle the speeds and also increase the latency, all while still connected on LTE.

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Speaking of boost. I happened to glance at the persons phone next to me as she blabbered on about which movie was on the scree... It was clearly captain America.

 

Anyhow, even though she had a 4 or 4s I noticed that not only did I have LTE, but that she had the little circle thing which I assume means she is still running ios 6. If I'm correct that means she was on 1x. Just out of curiosity I switched LTE off and went straight to 3G (no 1x for me) and did a speed test. It was a decent ping and downloads were above 1 Mbps.

 

LTE speed test had an amazing ping at 40, and download at 5. Pretty good for b25 inside a bunker of a building.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5s using Tapatalk

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Boost and Virgin throttling is probably one of the best things that could happen for Sprint customers, IMO.  Stopping the fraudulent users and network abusers is of utmost importance.  Long live (legitimate) Sprint Unlimited Data!  

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Boost and Virgin throttling is probably one of the best things that could happen for Sprint customers, IMO.  Stopping the fraudulent users and network abusers is of utmost importance.  Long live (legitimate) Sprint Unlimited Data!  

 

Why do you consider these subscribers to be fraudulent? They decided for a product which was offered legally and these subscribers generate revenue for Sprint too.

 

 

I like this.  Maybe now after all the kids on Boost and Virgin come into town for school my Sprint proper phone will actually be able to do something. (Still on legacy backhaul here)

 

I doubt this will have a large impact on contract subscribers. Sprint needs to get the network fully operational and provide peope with an experience within their coverage area that is not only equal but better as currently offered by AT&T or Verizon.

 

If Verizon launched a market, you could be sure that your service worked, with Sprint you don't get to experience this and people do pay attentention when the phone bounces on or off LTE all the time.

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Why do you consider these subscribers to be fraudulent? They decided for a product which was offered legally and these subscribers generate revenue for Sprint too.

 

 

I definitely do not consider them all fraudulent. Sorry that's the way I came off. 

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