To Verizon, "Unlimited" Means 5 GB
Posted by
kdawson
on Wed Apr 04, 2007 06:25 AM
from the sue-for-false-advertising dept.
from the sue-for-false-advertising dept.
Jason writes "For years there have been stories about people getting their unlimited Verizon EVDO Wireless accounts terminated because of excessive data usage, but Verizon never explicitly said that there is a limit. Now if you dive into the terms of the Unlimited Data Service plan they have put a section in that specifically states that anything over 5GB of data usage in a one month period is considered prima facie evidence that you must be downloading movies, and you will be cut off."
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Broadband Providers' Hidden Bandwidth Limits 443 comments
An anonymous reader sends us to the Boston Globe for a story that will come as a surprise to few here: broadband suppliers will cut you off if you download too many bits. It tells the stories of several Comcast users who were warned — without specifics — that they were using "too much" bandwidth, then had their accounts summarily cancelled. Looking into the future: "...even if only a tiny fraction of customers are downloading enough to trigger the policy, that will probably change as more entertainment moves to the Internet."
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To Verizon, "Unlimited" Means 5 GB
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What the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
It is just easier for them to sell something called "unlimited" than it is to sell something called "limited to 5GB".
Re:What the hell? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What the hell? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.wperry.net/ | Last Journal: Wednesday June 14 2006, @04:17PM)
I have 2 computers at work, a laptop and a desktop at home, Blackberry, and I occasionally find the need to check my e-mail on a friend's computer. With my e-mail stored on a remote (GMail) server I can get to my current mail from anywhere.
-----
WP
http://www.wperry.net/ [wperry.net]
"just simply?" (Score:4, Insightful)
How is this simpler than "www.gmail.com?"
Dynamic DNS, fer Pete's sake. The average
Re:What the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What the hell? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://xybapodcast.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday December 08 2006, @10:06AM)
Re:What the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Wednesday January 03 2007, @05:01PM)
Re:What the hell? (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Friday November 09, @04:36PM)
I don't think it's "easier", it's "lazier".
If I were Verizon, I'd be plugging the hell out of the 5G limit. I'd call it "Data 5G" or something similar, I'd describe the kinds of things you can do with 5G. I'd use the term "Effectively unlimited".
And then after the sheer enormity of that number had sunk in, I'd create a new plan, costing $10 a month more, called "Data 20G".
Verizon isn't merely being dishonest in calling it "Unlimited", they're also being very, very, stupid.
Re:What the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Friday November 09, @04:36PM)
No, marketing friendly would provide you with the opportunity to grow, as described above. It's just plain idiotic.
How, exactly, is Verizon supposed to market its bigger and better service in the future if its describing its current one as "Unlimited"?
New! The "Infinity Plus One" plan from Verizon! (Score:5, Funny)
You get the idea.
"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the America public." - H. L. Mencken
Re:What the hell? (Score:4, Interesting)
In Australia, no plans are truly unlimited (I think it's because of the high cost to connect us to the rest of the world). For example, I'm with Bigpond. We have the plan called
It isn't as draconian as Verizon (you don't get "terminated" or charged extra). It just isn't *really* unlimited because the Internet these days is pretty much unusable at 14kbps.
Re:What the hell? (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.michaelchaney.com/)
That's what rocks about the cellular service industry. Everybody's mouth-breathing stupid so it's not a competitive disadvantage.
I read Verizon's TOS a couple of months ago when evaluating the service and said "no thanks". They say in no uncertain terms that the service is for web browsing and email only, and if you go over the 5G they'll assume you're using it for something else and cut you off with no recourse.
While web and email are probably what I spend the most time doing, I still download iso's with bt, use ichat with my mother, stuff that uses more bandwidth. I might also use a vpn or something like that.
I look at my mother as the quintessential "normal user", and even she is doing stuff that's outside the realm of email and web. Thankfully wifi hotspots are common enough that I'm not too worried about it.
Re:What the hell? (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://thewaxwingslain.com/)
Re:What the hell? (Score:4, Informative)
"Unlimited Data Plans and Features (such as NationalAccess, BroadbandAccess, Push to Talk, and certain VZEmail services) may ONLY be used with wireless devices for the following purposes: (i) Internet browsing; (ii) email; and (iii) intranet access (including access to corporate intranets, email, and individual productivity applications like customer relationship management, sales force, and field service automation). The Unlimited Data Plans and Features MAY NOT be used for any other purpose. Examples of prohibited uses include, without limitation, the following: (i) continuous uploading, downloading or streaming of audio or video programming or games; (ii) server devices or host computer applications, including, but not limited to, Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, automated machine-to-machine connections or peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing; or (iii) as a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections. This means, by way of example only, that checking email, surfing the Internet, downloading legally acquired songs, and/or visiting corporate intranets is permitted, but downloading movies using P2P file sharing services and/or redirecting television signals for viewing on laptops is prohibited. A person engaged in prohibited uses, continuously for one hour, could typically use 100 to 200 MBs, or, if engaged in prohibited uses for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, could use more than 5 GBs in a month."
Re:What the hell? (Score:4, Interesting)
Mind you, I'm with an ISP that does not have one of these stupid "fair use" policies tied to their "unlimited" accounts... I have broadband via my cable account... and there's a fibre optic feed to a splitter thingy in the basement and I get a short coax run to my flat from that. That coax also carries my phone and TV signals.
Just marketing... (Score:4, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Saturday October 20, @06:40PM)
I have also read a lot of times people assuming that the people that download a lot is *pirating* stuff. But with the current rise of multimedia content (VoIP, VoD, online gaming, and the massive amount of flash crap in the web) it is very easy to go over 2GB a month...
This is 2007. (Score:4, Funny)
(http://markbyers.com/ | Last Journal: Monday July 24 2006, @12:54PM)
But take comfort in the fact that you are helping stop global warming.
Re:This is 2007. (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/)
You are dumber than toast. Downloading a movie makes a copy of it. If you're not authorised to make that copy, you're infringing the owner's rights. Just because the MPAA are only choosing to sue uploaders doesn't make downloading legal.
Re:This is 2007. (Score:5, Informative)
(Last Journal: Thursday January 18 2007, @09:10PM)
I think you probably missed an important point. This is not a limit on Verizon's wired DSL or FIOS services, this is VerizonWireless' (a different company) 3G wireless data services.
With an average download speed of about 400kbs, 5GB represents about 40 hours of continuous download. EvDO is simply not practical for moving about large amounts of data.
I'm not a great fan of Verizon's business practices, but from a practical perspective the 5 GB limit is unlikely to affect 99.99% of their users. I'm traveling to client sites quite a bit for my job doing software implementations. I use the service extensively, mostly for web access, replicating email, and some Remote Desktop/VNC usage, and I rarely break 1GB in a month.
Re:This is 2007. (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.clarke.ca/)
That's no "unlimited" in any real sense of the word. I don't think anyone would reasonably fault Verizon for putting a 5GB limit on their plan. To call it unlimited though is disingenuous, no matter what the fine print says, and to not offer any other more expensive options for those who do go over the limit is just stupid.
Ah memories... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://jonathanyoung.wordpress.com/)
I vowed next time to get a hard drive with at least twice unlimited capacity.
Re:Ah memories... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Limited != Unlimited (Score:5, Insightful)
In fact many ISPs claim to have unlimited use (despite all ADSL in the UK being limited) most only state in the small print that they have 'Fair Usage Policies' (FUP) which will come in when they decide you have used too much, they always imply that there are no limits (one even states "that you dont have to monitor your usage!").
This is simply illegal IMHO, you cannot state that something is unlimited when it is limited. Even if this contradiction comes in the small print, especially when you do not state how limited it is. A c
This page http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/caps.htm [kitz.co.uk] outlines it perfectly.
Re:Sign the petition (Score:5, Informative)
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Unlimited-ADSL/ [pm.gov.uk]
Re:.ca (Score:5, Funny)
Re:.ca (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.edugeek.net/)
Re:.ca (Score:4, Insightful)
Again, with IPTV, there's a realistic limit on how much you're going to watch in a given month. In other words, there is a clear definition of what "unlimited" means in that context. And there's also no way in hell that someone can possibly watch TV 24/7 for an entire month, so that alone is evidence enough to justify that someone is abusing their connection. And let's not forget that the cable company can easily throttle back your general Internet bandwidth in the case that you're using excessive IPTV bandwidth.
Now as far as the people in the article, they are CLEARLY using their cellphones as a general Internet connection for their computers. This is FORBIDDEN by the cellphone TOS unless you sign up for a different plan. I just flat out don't believe that someone used 5GB of bandwidth in a month by checking email and surfing web pages using ONLY their cellphone.
Re:.ca (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Of course he does, he's got all these movies of it...
Linux (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, in Canada... (Score:4, Funny)