Top 5% being throttled starting 6/1

[Mobilesolutions]

I think all of you who are in the 5% who don't like the new terms should churn. That will show Sprint.

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

I probably fit the highest usage consumer bill with an avg of 7-12GB monthly. I fully support the throttling efforts and i'm sure the network will still allow me to finish all my tasks and obligations on the go. It is a win for everyone on Sprint.

[The Dave]

The part I like is that it is a dynamic "top 5%" instead of a blanket "once you hit x gb". I am all for Sprint helping to ensure the highest quality of experience on their network. It also seems like this is only something that steps in when capacity is beginning to suffer.

[swintec]

It's not throttling the way AT&T or T-Mobile do by artificially limiting your speed.

 

It is a network prioritization, so your packets will be delayed as they are a lower priority than other "standard" users that haven't hit the 5% mark.

 

Was the method and the way they go about it published anywhere?

 

I believe some of the cable ISPs, biggest one being Comcast, use network prioritization as needed and have for several years and it hasnt caused any problems.  Unless for some reason it is different in a wireless network.

[tybo31316]

I support the throttling especially when I went over to android central forums and they have a terabyte club thread with people abusing their respective networks to achieve 1tb of usage in one month. I find it ridiculous that someone could use that much data in one month they must not have a life or a wife or a job.

[JeffDTD]

I support the throttling especially when I went over to android central forums and they have a terabyte club thread with people abusing their respective networks to achieve 1tb of usage in one month. I find it ridiculous that someone could use that much data in one month they must not have a life or a wife or a job.

Me too. And im always dismayed that any carrier lets a single customer anywhere in their network get away with consuming that much data unthrottled

 

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

[jamisonshaw125]

1 tb is insane. I may use a ton on my home ISP but normally like 300 gb. But that's because we watch movies, game, stream, Hulu, Netflix. 1 tb on mobile is abuse. I can't believe sprint couldn't just suspend them kick them off sprint.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5s using Tapatalk

[WiWavelength]

1 tb on mobile is abuse.

 

Uh, no, 1 TB per month over mobile broadband is not abuse.  It is network genocide.

 

AJ

[tybo31316]

1 tb is insane. I may use a ton on my home ISP but normally like 300 gb. But that's because we watch movies, game, stream, Hulu, Netflix. 1 tb on mobile is abuse. I can't believe sprint couldn't just suspend them kick them off sprint.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5s using Tapatalk

It wasn't on sprint according to them sprint isn't fast enough or have enough coverage for them to do it. I only use about 50gb a month on my home connection and about it 3gb on my phone. I don't like watching movies on my phone. I only watch YouTube vids and stream music.

 

If people want to use 1tb over LTE unlimited will be gone in no time.

[tybo31316]

Uh, no, 1 TB per month over mobile broadband is not abuse. It is network genocide.

 

AJ

I found one that's worst.

[WiWavelength]

I found one that's worst.

 

To put that level of usage in perspective, it requires an average of 8 Mbps for every second of the entire month.  If I ever met the asshat who thought that fair and appropriate, I would punch him in the gut.

 

AJ

[jamisonshaw125]

What in the world could you be doing to use that much data. What is that one from, tmobile? If these are the people sprint is trying to get rid of, I say take them all.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5s using Tapatalk

[tybo31316]

What in the world could you be doing to use that much data. What is that one from, tmobile? If these are the people sprint is trying to get rid of, I say take them all.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5s using Tapatalk

That particular one is Verizon and another guy did it on tmobile.

[halcyoncmdr]

I always stream Spotify at extreme quality. I wonder how much more data I use doing that as opposed to normal quality.

 

Here's the info from Spotify directly. To be honest though, 320kbps streaming is pointless, there are so many other places along the line that the compression techniques are removing info that simply can't be restored. This is a good write-up about it that Deadmau5 put out back in 2009 (the link is a reddit.com repost someone put up yesterday simply for ease of linking), regardless of your thoughts on Deadmau5, his points are entirely valid. The quality of the files that Spotify (and other streaming places) gets are likely already heavily compressed from the original masters and lacking a TON of information that simply can't be put back. 160kbps is probably the highest any real quality increases would be seen on Spotify's scale, anything above 192kbps is likely a waste. The increased "quality" you get going from 160kbps to 320kbps is mostly just wasted bandwidth because of all that compression along the way to get to your device.

What bitrate does Spotify use for streaming?

 

Spotify uses 3 quality ratings for streaming, all in the Ogg Vorbis format.

• ~96 kbps
  • Normal quality on mobile.
• ~160 kbps
  • Desktop and web player standard quality.
  • High quality on mobile.
• ~320 kbps (only available to Premium subscribers)
  • Desktop high quality.
  • Extreme quality on mobile.

https://support.spotify.com/us/learn-more/faq/#!/article/What-bitrate-does-Spotify-use-for-streaming 

[rf40928]

I probably fit the highest usage consumer bill with an avg of 7-12GB monthly. I fully support the throttling efforts and i'm sure the network will still allow me to finish all my tasks and obligations on the go. It is a win for everyone on Sprint.

 

Hope this is the case, but before everyone goes posting on the 1st how it is .. I think we need a month or so of good real useage data for those using 5Gb+ to determine how noticeable in reality this will actually be to those being throttled..

 

I mean, everyone says it won't be noticeable and that maybe the case...  but we'll know soon enough

[newyorker]

The impression I get from reading this thread is that Sprint's network is like an apple pie and what people call "data abusers' take a large piece of the pie and there's not enough for everyone else to eat except the pie magically becomes a whole pie again late.

 

Seriously though can someone point me to a link that explains the technical details of what exactly happens during congestion on a TDD cell site and an FDD? And no saying it's just like what happens in a wired connection is not what I'm looking for.

[snakester]

I'm genuinely curious how people can defend this. I paid an ETF to Verizon because I actually needed unlimited data to my phone. I don't cheat, I pay for a tethering plan when I need to connect my laptop or tablet. I just use what I was sold, unlimited phone data. Not "unlimited phone data, except data communism." I've said it before, I'll say it again. There's plenty of stuff in the ToS they can boot the hardcore triple gig abusers off for. Not to mention I use most of my data offpeak, so why do I get to be punished when I want to use a small amount during the day?

 

I use 10GB a month at the absolute most. AT&Ts 10GB plan looks mighty nice because of this.

 

Sent from my 831C using Tapatalk

[utiz4321]

I'm genuinely curious how people can defend this. I paid an ETF to Verizon because I actually needed unlimited data to my phone. I don't cheat, I pay for a tethering plan when I need to connect my laptop or tablet. I just use what I was sold, unlimited phone data. Not "unlimited phone data, except data communism." I've said it before, I'll say it again. There's plenty of stuff in the ToS they can boot the hardcore triple gig abusers off for. Not to mention I use most of my data offpeak, so why do I get to be punished when I want to use a small amount during the day?

 

I use 10GB a month at the absolute most. AT&Ts 10GB plan looks mighty nice because of this.

 

Sent from my 831C using Tapatalk

Go to AT&T then. They are not punishing you , they are looking at ways to manage traffic. What is the difference between you being throttled because you are a heavy user then you seeing slow data speeds because the tower is over loaded? The are only traffic shaping on overloaded towers ie towers you would have experienced slow speeds on anyway. In any case we don't even know what throttling under those conditions means so maybe you should calm down and see how this will impact you and then go pay more at AT&T.

[WiWavelength]

I'm genuinely curious how people can defend this. I paid an ETF to Verizon because I actually needed unlimited data to my phone. I don't cheat, I pay for a tethering plan when I need to connect my laptop or tablet. I just use what I was sold, unlimited phone data. Not "unlimited phone data, except data communism." I've said it before, I'll say it again. There's plenty of stuff in the ToS they can boot the hardcore triple gig abusers off for. Not to mention I use most of my data offpeak, so why do I get to be punished when I want to use a small amount during the day?

The defense is that no, the proposed throttling is not a perfect system. But "unlimited" data is an even more imperfect situation because too many people use too much data without any cognition of how it affects other users.  Then, gridlock ensues.

 

And, for the record, no one is taking away your "unlimited" data.  You just may get throttled during peak times on congested sites.  Since you claim to use most of your data off peak, that should have little effect on your access.

 

I use 10GB a month at the absolute most. AT&Ts 10GB plan looks mighty nice because of this.

If so, then go. Do what you need to do.  At AT&T, you will pay for your level of usage.  But the Sprint network cannot currently stand so many "unlimited" users.  A few years ago, AT&T was in the same predicament.  What goes around comes back around.

 

AJ

[snakester]

Go to AT&T then. They are not punishing you , they are looking at ways to manage traffic. What is the difference between you be throttled because you are a heavy user then you seeing slow data speeds because the tower is over loaded? The are only traffic shaping on overloaded towers ie towers you would have experienced slow speeds on anyway. In any case we don't even know what throttling undner those conditions means so maybe you should calm down and see how this will impact you and then go pay more at AT&T.

Not everyone's situation is the same. With the way Corp discounts are applied and amounts the AT&T plan would be very similar in cost to what I'm paying now. I also had no other animosity before this. Right after switching I was a huge Sprint fanboy. I actually got people to switch, and they're happy. And thankfully they don't use a ton of data or they'd probably be mad.

 

The difference with it is now when a tower is overloaded, everyone's having the same experience. This is "oh this tower is overloaded, well let's give someone else who pays the same as you better service." Just because they're not using their plan to the same potential I am. I hate analogies because they're never truly accurate but it'd be kind of like telling someone with a large grocery cart that they have to let the people with smaller orders in front of them.

[WiWavelength]

I hate analogies but it'd be like telling someone with a large grocery cart that they have to let the people with smaller orders in front of them.

 

No, it would be like telling the person gorging himself directly off the buffet to go to the back of the line, grab a plate, and let the people who are taking only sensible portions on their plates get to eat, too.

 

AJ

[Johnner1999]

You folks may hate my comment, but the sooner sprint moves to fixed caps like att and vzw, it will improve service.

 

I'm not saying they have to match 100%. Maybe undercut heavily on 6gb and under.

 

My 11gb plan is fine for my two lines.

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[jamisonshaw125]

Not everyone's situation is the same. With the way Corp discounts are applied and amounts the AT&T plan would be very similar in cost to what I'm paying now. I also had no other animosity before this. Right after switching I was a huge Sprint fanboy. I actually got people to switch, and they're happy. And thankfully they don't use a ton of data or they'd probably be mad.

 

The difference with it is now when a tower is overloaded, everyone's having the same experience. This is "oh this tower is overloaded, well let's give someone else who pays the same as you better service." Just because they're not using their plan to the same potential I am. I hate analogies because they're never truly accurate but it'd be kind of like telling someone with a large grocery cart that they have to let the people with smaller orders in front of them.

But is the "small amount" of data usage that you MIGHT be throttled on, really enough to result in you switching providers? Seriously though? You might not even get throttled. With a 5s you could just switch to b26, or vice versa. 

[snakester]

No, it would be like telling the person gorging himself directly off the buffet to go to the back of the line, grab a plate, and let the people who are taking only sensible portions on their plates get to eat, too.

 

AJ

Now see I find that one inaccurate. They never sold unlimited as "unlimited". Buffets tend to have rules in place that are posted and one of them is "one plate at a time and no sampling". Sprint never sold me unlimited as one plate and back to the table.

 

There are provisions in the ToS (which for some reason no carrier seems to want to enforce) that are more than capable of dealing with the abusers. You get rid of them and I wouldn't be surprised to see a good chunk of this issue go away. Before you say"oh they're just using their unlimited" Sprint never said you could use unlimited tethering data.

[WiWavelength]

You folks may hate my comment, but the sooner sprint moves to fixed caps like att and vzw, it will improve service.

 

No, not many here will "hate" your comment.  In fact, I firmly agree.  But I also realize that Sprint is fighting for its own viability against the Twin Bells and a Santa Claus like T-Mobile.  If Sprint were to cut off "unlimited" data for everyone, there would be cacophonous "rabble, rabble" from the peanut gallery -- even from those users unlikely to be affected by the current throttling proposal.  Sprint would get pilloried on numerous fronts.

 

AJ

[snakester]

But is the "small amount" of data usage that you MIGHT be throttled on, really enough to result in you switching providers? Seriously though? You might not even get throttled. With a 5s you could just switch to b26, or vice versa.

The switch providers side of things is more big picture. I live in a semi rural area, sort of a buffer strip in the middle between a big city and the mountains. I was happy with the value proposition Sprint brought me, which was giving up some native coverage for completely unlimited data. Now they're changing up the value proposition, which makes me re-evaluate.