26 August, 2017
Verizon is raising the price of its unlimited plan while introducing a slightly cheaper, more limited version as wireless carriers battle each other for customers.
According to the carrier at that time, they were simply conducting a "test", but it seems that this test was a prelude to something else, which is a bunch of new unlimited data plans that unfortunately will throttle your video streams.
"We're doing this to ensure all customers have a great experience on our network since there is no visible difference in quality on a smartphone or tablet when video is shown at higher resolutions than 720p on phones and 1080p on tablets", Verizon said of the changes. It includes unlimited 4G LTE data, talk and text with DVD quality video streaming and calling to Mexico and Canada. For a family of four, the "premium" version costs $200; the cheaper plan is $160.
Customers on the previous unlimited plan will get the same video quality as the Beyond Unlimited plan but won't pay more. It will do that on the pricier plan only when a customer uses more than 22 gigabytes in a month.
The popular plans have "undoubtedly placed a heavy burden on the network", he said.
While Verizon breathlessly denied the claim, the fact the carrier has made a decision to throttle all video and ban 4K streaming speaks for itself. T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint also reserve the right to throttle wireless consumers who exceed arbitrary data caps. Having unlimited data means customers can watch all the network-taxing high-resolution video they want.
Verizon has recently announced that their previous unlimited data plan is now being split into three different options: Go Unlimited which is priced starting at $75; Beyond Unlimited which starts at $85 for the first line, and Business Unlimited. But if you want to change to the new plans, Verizon says you can do so.
Last month, some Verizon users noticed that the company was capping video streams at the speed of 10 Mbps - high enough for DVD quality, but significantly slower than the 25 Mbps needed for ultra high definition.