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Top 5% being throttled starting 6/1


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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.

 

We have used the all you can eat buffet analogy a lot.  So, if you think the previous version inaccurate, try this one.  The guy who runs to the buffet and fills his plate every time the shrimp cocktail is brought out is told to have a seat and let the other patrons have fair opportunity, too.  Then, he can go back to the buffet.

 

AJ

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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.

But it is still unlimited. You just might or might not get throttled when the network deems it absolutely necessary to maintain all user experience.....not just your own. I am not 100% on the facts of this but I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens. If Sprint no longer works for you, at least you have options. 

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We have used the all you can eat buffet analogy a lot. So, if you think the previous version inaccurate, try this one. The guy who runs to the buffet and fills his plate every time the shrimp cocktail is brought out is told to have a seat and let the other patrons have fair opportunity, too. Then, he can go back to the buffet.

 

AJ

And this comparison is more like what they reserved the right to do when I signed up, which was selective throttling of video. It's not like when they tell shrimp guy to not have more shrimp, they cut him off from getting anything else. From the way Conan Kudo described it earlier in the thread, you're essentially cut off from network resources as long as people who aren't in the 5% are utilizing them fully.

 

Another thing I find amusing is that same user says the way this throttle works completely breaks streaming but yet they just made a deal with Spotify. Smart move.

 

On a side note the buffets in my area seem to be smarter than the fictional analogy ones here. Signs about one plate at a time and only one serving of crabs legs at places that have them all over the place.

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Considering it's still May, we have no experience how the throttle will work in practice, just speculation (some informed, much not informed).

 

My guess/informed speculation is that throttling won't really be noticeable (unlike the experience of going over the T-Mobile prepaid hard cap, which kills rather than throttles all Google Play downloads, VPNs, and most other non-web traffic completely) except for video streaming, where it probably depends on who's doing the streaming. I'd imagine mainstream services like YouTube and Netflix will still work but at lower resolution, since they have the engineering resources to deal with all sorts of congestion issues, while your Ukrainian cam girl's feed will cope poorly.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

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And this comparison is more like what they reserved the right to do when I signed up, which was selective throttling of video. It's not like when they tell shrimp guy to not have more shrimp, they cut him off from getting anything else. From the way Conan Kudo described it earlier in the thread, you're essentially cut off from network resources as long as people who aren't in the 5% are utilizing them fully.

 

Another thing I find amusing is that same user says the way this throttle works completely breaks streaming but yet they just made a deal with Spotify. Smart move.

 

On a side note the buffets in my area seem to be smarter than the fictional analogy ones here. Signs about one plate at a time and only one serving of crabs legs at places that have them all over the place.

They are not cutiing you off from the buffet that would mean you have no service just making you go througblune slower. This could possibly improve average speeds of heavy users on congested towers by allowing useable data where none existed before. Calm down wait and see the impact. I am a heavy data user and will have to do the same thing.

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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

 

I'm on the fence.  On one side.. yes its undeniably true some people are using ridiculous amounts of data, but they are also using what they are sold.  The marketing behind this (fair or not) is made to attract buyers looking for lack of usage limits they see in those ads and hear from Sprint reps to get them locked into a contract or phone payment to which this means - to most - you're stuck paying us for awhile.

 

..  Unlimited means "without limits" and its not any consumers fault when they sign up with  Sprint and find out the hard way that Sprint has less bandwidth then any carrier in their area (perhaps because of no 2500 yet ) - and thus also learn the hard way that Sprint can't handle as many users on those towers.  Perhaps this will get much better when 2500 rolls out everywhere..

 

On the other hand data management will make slow, congested areas .... perhaps - " useable", which makes everyone happy. What we need to determine in the next month before jumping the gun is how this will affect Sprint users.  On typical days in typical usage areas.

 

The moral problem with data management is there is no fair way to determine who actually needs data for what mportant reason when you throttle someone for a 5gb target. 5gb is decent usage, but not that much in a world that is increasingly becoming more and more centered on media and communication with pictures and videos.

 

You can have user A] who pays his bills on time and uses 6 or 7 gb for business purposes and person  B] who only used 4gb ..but all on facebook and music streaming and it always late paying the bill.. It's not unreasonable for either to expect useable service when they were both sold unlimited data for life. 

 

It's easy to nod in agreement when you hear someone say this affects the heaviest users, and Sprint wants to get rid of them, but I really don't think Sprint wants to lose anymore customers.  When you sell unlimited data you're selling a product that intentionally and directly gets pushed to people looking to get more for a little less.  This is still known as a "Good deal"

 

It's easy to say to someone - well you should go to At&t or Verizon, but this again is not what Sprint really wants.  Those guy are also adding bandwidth to their towers and they are also giving out more appealing deals then just a year or two ago because this is a war - it's a fight for your money - and Sprint needs that money as much as anyone else. 

 

If Sprint can implement this in a way in which those being throttled will still have usable service while being throttled then this will be good for everyone.  Otherwise, Sprint may have to modify it's 'Unlimited for Life guarantee' with a disclaimer: "You'll be flying like an eagle.... At least until 5Gb"

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I'm on the fence. On one side.. yes its undeniably true some people are using ridiculous amounts of data, but they are also using what they are sold. The marketing behind this (fair or not) is made to attract buyers looking for lack of usage limits they see in those ads and hear from Sprint reps to get them locked into a contract or phone payment to which this means - to most - you're stuck paying us for awhile.

 

.. Unlimited means "without limits" and its not any consumers fault when they sign up with Sprint and find out the hard way that Sprint has less bandwidth then any carrier in their area (perhaps because of no 2500 yet ) - and thus also learn the hard way that Sprint can't handle as many users on those towers. Perhaps this will get much better when 2500 rolls out everywhere..

 

On the other hand data management will make slow, congested areas .... perhaps - " useable", which makes everyone happy. What we need to determine in the next month before jumping the gun is how this will affect Sprint users. On typical days in typical usage areas.

 

The moral problem with data management is there is no fair way to determine who actually needs data for what mportant reason when you throttle someone for a 5gb target. 5gb is decent usage, but not that much in a world that is increasingly becoming more and more centered on media and communication with pictures and videos.

 

You can have user A] who pays his bills on time and uses 6 or 7 gb for business purposes and person B] who only used 4gb ..but all on facebook and music streaming and it always late paying the bill.. It's not unreasonable for either to expect useable service when they were both sold unlimited data for life.

 

It's easy to nod in agreement when you hear someone say this affects the heaviest users, and Sprint wants to get rid of them, but I really don't think Sprint wants to lose anymore customers. When you sell unlimited data you're selling a product that intentionally and directly gets pushed to people looking to get more for a little less. This is still known as a "Good deal"

 

It's easy to say to someone - well you should go to At&t or Verizon, but this again is not what Sprint really wants. Those guy are also adding bandwidth to their towers and they are also giving out more appealing deals then just a year or two ago because this is a war - it's a fight for your money - and Sprint needs that money as much as anyone else.

 

If Sprint can implement this in a way in which those being throttled will still have usable service while being throttled then this will be good for everyone. Otherwise, Sprint may have to modify it's 'Unlimited for Life guarantee' with a disclaimer: "You'll be flying like an eagle.... At least until 5Gb"

Unlimited data stricky means you can use as much data as you want. It makes no statement about data speeds. Data speeds are limited all the time signal quality and network conditions, now Sprint is going to exercise some control to shape traffic that does not mean your data is not unlimited. If they had promised unrestricted data you might have a point.

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Unlimited means "without limits" and its not any consumers fault when they sign up with  Sprint and find out the hard way that Sprint has less bandwidth then any carrier in their area (perhaps because of no 2500 yet ) - and thus also learn the hard way that Sprint can't handle as many users on those towers.  Perhaps this will get much better when 2500 rolls out everywhere..

Unlimited means you can use as much data as you want. There is no where they say that they cannot throttle you. This is basically what is happening. If user A is using a lot of bandwidth and users B, C, and D want to do something, there is less bandwidth for those 3 because A is taking up a lot of it. What Sprints new throttling plan does is throttle user A only during peak times so users such as B, C, and D can also use the network without having horrible speeds. Sprint has promised unlimited data, which means you can use any amount of data without being overcharged. While some real heavy users may notice it, they will only experience throttling during peak hours or when that specific tower is congested. 

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I'm way too lazy to go dig it up right now but a while back they actually were advertising unlimited with no throttling or management.

 

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Unlimited data stricky means you can use as much data as you want. It makes no statement about data speeds. Data speeds are limited all the time signal quality and network conditions, now Sprint is going to exercise some control to shape traffic that does not mean your data is not unlimited. If they had promised unrestricted data you might have a point.

The first flaw with your statement is it's IMPOSSIBLE to have truly unlimited data once they implement the 5gb cap in a few days. This means a decent amount of users will be throttled in busy areas - because plenty are congested. But most of us have already concluded that NO provider makes no promise of speeds ...and...although WE know Sprint has less bandwidth (for now) in many areas then the other big 2 -Most general public subscribers signing on likely don't know or understand fully what this means for them. ( A smaller piece of the pie because there is less - for now)

 

Going on that .. with Sprint's new LTE campaign people signing up now aren't looking at fine print with corporate marketng machine in full swing- making you believe when it comes to speeds - that this LTE network is hot. Its not unreasonable to expect a certain level of speed when you hear the acronym LTE.

 

I'm not arguing this throttle will suck or it will fail. No one knows for sure but until Sprint gets more bandwidth out there they will have to throttle more users and hopefully keep service usable and friendly. Ive been patient and stuck around and i intend to if service doesn't take a turn for the worse.

 

You can argue that no one is promised a certain speed all you want but speeds will increase on all carriers just as they will continue to on isp's .. Because people expect it and like new phones every year - money drives technology. Sprint needs more subscribers and money.

 

So what we are hoping for is useable speeds. If i was concerned about consistently faster speeds then other carriers i would've left a long time ago. I believe for most people this will be good but we can't assume either way. And just because im not blindly loyal to any single private company who provides a service for one thing - Dollars- doesnt mean i want this to fail as this would hurt me too, as i am locked into a contract myself.

 

You can come off firing how unlimited data doesnt mean they promise a certain speed - which again we know, but Sprint is trying to rebuild more then its network - its rebuilding its name and credibility.

 

If this is done properly they will continue to do just that.

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The first flaw with your statement is it's IMPOSSIBLE to have truly unlimited data once they implement the 5gb cap in a few days.

 

Except it isnt a 5 GB cap or starting point.  They never said it begins at 5 GBs.  It is the top 5% for the previous months data usage.  This will be a constantly moving threshold depending on usage of everyone on the network.  They will aggregate all users data use together and take the top 5%.

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The first flaw with your statement is it's IMPOSSIBLE to have truly unlimited data once they implement the 5gb cap in a few days. This means a decent amount of users will be throttled in busy areas - because plenty are congested. But most of us have already concluded that NO provider makes no promise of speeds ...and...although WE know Sprint has less bandwidth (for now) in many areas then the other big 2 -Most general public subscribers signing on likely don't know or understand fully what this means for them. ( A smaller piece of the pie because there is less - for now)

Going on that .. with Sprint's new LTE campaign people signing up now aren't looking at fine print with corporate marketng machine in full swing- making you believe when it comes to speeds - that this LTE network is hot. Its not unreasonable to expect a certain level of speed when you hear the acronym LTE.

I'm not arguing this throttle will suck or it will fail. No one knows for sure but until Sprint gets more bandwidth out there they will have to throttle more users and hopefully keep service usable and friendly. Ive been patient and stuck around and i intend to if service doesn't take a turn for the worse.

You can argue that no one is promised a certain speed all you want but speeds will increase on all carriers just as they will continue to on isp's .. Because people expect it and like new phones every year - money drives technology. Sprint needs more subscribers and money.

So what we are hoping for is useable speeds. If i was concerned about consistently faster speeds then other carriers i would've left a long time ago. I believe for most people this will be good but we can't assume either way. And just because im not blindly loyal to any single private company who provides a service for one thing - Dollars- doesnt mean i want this to fail as this would hurt me too, as i am locked into a contract myself.

You can come off firing how unlimited data doesnt mean they promise a certain speed - which again we know, but Sprint is trying to rebuild more then its network - its rebuilding its name and credibility.

If this is done properly they will continue to do just that.

Just saying, there is not a 5GB cap. Sprint never said that you will get throttled if youbise over 5GB.
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BUT MOMMY I REALLY REALLY REALLY WANT FASTEST DATA ALL THE TIME, I DONT CARE IF THE OTHER KIDS CANT HAVENT ANY.... I JUST WANT MINE

 

Yes. That's what some of you sound like. Doesn't matter that a throttle on some could mean more for all, you only care that you got yours when you wanted it.

 

As you mature in life you realize it's not all about you. Life isn't fair. If you use a ton of data and dont like this policy, go to another carrier. Why are you whining to us like we can axe the policy or something?

 

End rant.

 

Sent from my HTC M8

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Except it isnt a 5 GB cap or starting point.  They never said it begins at 5 GBs.  It is the top 5% for the previous months data usage.  This will be a constantly moving threshold depending on usage of everyone on the network.  They will aggregate all users data use together and take the top 5%.

AJ pointed out that Sprint seems to be looking at this 5gb mark and i have read a few articles that do say Sprint is around this mark - artificial or not ( Sprint maybe sand bagging ) ... But if the top 1% are using over 15gb - although the curve is steep- this could put 5gb users in the top.. One explanation is with less bandwidth you will have a steeper curve as alot. According to data the avg smartphone user uses around 2gb- although i don't agree with how that data was used- it is out there..

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Except it isnt a 5 GB cap or starting point.  They never said it begins at 5 GBs.  It is the top 5% for the previous months data usage.  This will be a constantly moving threshold depending on usage of everyone on the network.  They will aggregate all users data use together and take the top 5%.

  

Just saying, there is not a 5GB cap. Sprint never said that you will get throttled if youbise over 5GB.

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/5933-top-5-being-throttled-starting-61/?p=317685

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It's still not a concrete cap. It's the number they used as an example, but there's absolutely nothing that says "after 5GB of usage you WILL be throttled." You still have to have the right conditions to initiate network management, and be in the top 5%. Most of the time, you will not find yourself in those conditions.

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It's still not a concrete cap. It's the number they used as an example, but there's absolutely nothing that says "after 5GB of usage you WILL be throttled." You still have to have the right conditions the initiate network management, and be in the top 5%. Most of the time, you will not find yourself in those conditions.

I know and agree its not concrete but I've read enough to see Sprint is saying if you use 5gb or more you'll likely find yourself in the top 5%... Its gonna be close

 

Cisco's data says the avg user is only around 2gb.. This puts a 5gb user at 150% over that!

 

Mathematically many more 2gb users exist then 3gb.. and still more 3gb users then 4gb.. With the top 1% probably being over 20gb its easy to see the top 5% is probably in near the 5gb area they mention.

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its not concrete

There, you can end your argument right there. It is NOT concrete that the 5 GB mark is when someone would be throttled under the correct circumstances. It doesn't matter what you have read, because, again, it is NOT CONCRETE EVIDENCE. Do not assume facts that are not in evidence.

 

-Anthony

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This thread has become a carousel. No new developments and the same old arguments. It's locked for now. If something changes in the news it will be reopened. It may also be reopened after this goes into effect.

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