Items tagged with throttling
During the terrible wildfires that ravaged some California counties, firefighters working to save lives and property had a problem with the cellular data service they were receiving on the Verizon network. The problem was that Verizon throttled their plan making the internet access the teams needed slower than it should have been. Verizon's response on the issue of slow internet speeds for the county was that it needed to upgrade to a better plan; which is ultimately what happened, so the firefighters had the tools they needed to get their life-saving work done. Legislators in Texas want to...
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It looks as though both Samsung and Apple are facing the music in Italy over their use of software updates to purposely slow down devices. Italy's antitrust watchdog fined Samsung and Apple each $5 million euros, which works out to around $5.7 million. The regulatory agency said that Samsung and Apple had harmed customers with the secret software controls, and concluded that both "had caused serious dysfunctions and reduced performance significantly, thereby accelerating the process of replacing them." In addition, it was determined that this was a somewhat underhanded ploy to slow down older phones...
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Verizon Wireless is catching heat for throttling data services of the Santa Clara County Fire Department while wildfires ravaged California. The fire department's chief, Anthony Bowden, said the throttling impeded his department's ability to respond to emergencies, and that Verizon was informed of the "significant impact" its decision was having. Santa Clara Fire pays Verizon for what is supposed to be 'unlimited' data. However, it apparently reached the limit of unfettered data and had its services throttled, which primarily affected a fire department vehicle that is "deployed to large incidents...
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If there's one bit of messaging we keyed on, with respect to Samsung's recently announced Galaxy Note 9 flagship and its high-level feature set, it was the promise of a robust thermal solution that would maintain performance over time and under pressure. Samsung claims the new Galaxy Note 9 employs a "water-carbon cooling" system, with a heat spreader for its Snapdragon 845 SoC and associated circuitry, that's three times larger than the previous generation Galaxy Note. So we figured we'd like to put that to the test. Meanwhile, we've also been spending quality time in the test lab with none other...
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It seems as though controversy is destined to stay with Apple these days. In recent months, Apple came under fire for its failure-prone keyboards on MacBook/MacBook Pro models, but that backlash was somewhat mitigated by a third-generation design that largely cures the problem. However, a new controversy is brewing over processor throttling on the new 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro with the Core i9 (Coffee Lake) processor option. YouTuber Dave Lee first brought attention to the problem earlier this week when he discovered that while under the load the MacBook Pro with Core...
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Bad news for AT&T and good news for consumers at large—the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) does in fact have authority over the wireless carrier and other common carriers, an appeals court has determined. That means the FTC can dole out punishment to AT&T Mobility for throttling data on its unlimited data plan on the basis that doing so was "unfair and deceptive" to customers. The issue dates back to a lawsuit the FTC filed against AT&T in October 2014 in the US District Court in Northern California. It was the FTC's claim that AT&T advertised unlimited data to...
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If you've been following the tech world over the past two weeks, Apple hasn't had this much negative attention aimed at its products since the MacBook Pro battery life fiasco stirred by Consumer Reports, or perhaps the iPhone 4 "Antennagate". Apple's decision to throttle older iPhones with degraded batteries -- while not informing customers of the practice -- has invited swift backlash. Not surprisingly, some of Apple's competitors are latching on to its misery, while at the same time reassuring current -- and potentially, future -- customers that they would never use such secretive tactics. The...
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It was only a matter of time before the lawsuits would start raining down after Apple admitted to throttling CPU performance on older iPhones. Apple confirmed the practice after users complained on reddit about degraded battery performance leading to slowdowns, which was later confirmed by analysis from Primate Labs. In fact, Apple has been hit by not one, but two lawsuits that are seeking class-action status. The first lawsuit was filed by Stefan Bogdanovich and Dakota Speas, both of which own an iPhone 7. The iPhone 7 was first launched in September 2016, and was subject to Apple's throttling...
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T-Mobile has made a name for itself by bucking industry norms and charting its own path. From special T-Mobile Tuesday promotions, to enticing bundle offers, to generous "unlimited" data throttling limits, the third-place wireless carrier usually takes a customer-centric approach to its business model (well, if you don't count that brief Apple Watch Series 3 blunder). Today, T-Mobile is taking yet another step to appease its customer base by raising the "prioritization point" after which your data speeds can be throttled to dismal levels. For AT&T and Verizon Wireless, that limit is set at...
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Has your House of Cards binge been plagued by lag? Verizon admitted to having recently experimented with capping download speeds to 10Mbps on mobile devices. The test seems to have particularly targeted popular video streaming services like Netflix and YouTube. Verizon’s cap was uncovered through tests last week with Netflix’s speed test tool fast.com. Although Netflix was the only service that was able to verify these numbers through a test tool, other video streaming services such as YouTube seemed to have also suffered from lag. Many people argued that these numbers were confirmation that Verizon...
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When companies advertise unlimited data plans for its customers and then renege on that promise, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) definitely wants some answers. The latest wireless company to come under the watchful eye of the FCC is none other than T-Mobile, which has long touted its unlimited data plans as an advantage over its competition. However, the company began throttling “data hogs” on its unlimited plans back in 2015 if they consumed more than 17GB of data per month (the “Top 3 percent” according to T-Mobile). This “magical” threshold for throttling was not explicitly made...
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AT&T, America’s second largest wireless carrier, has come under fire not only from customers, but also the FCC for its throttling practices on “legacy” unlimited data plans. The FCC fined AT&T a record $100 million for data throttling, with FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc stating, “Unlimited means unlimited. The Commission is committed to holding accountable those broadband providers who fail to be fully transparent about data limits.” AT&T for its part said that the FCC’s $100 million fine was “plucked out of thin air” in addition to being “arbitrary and excessive.” Under...
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T-Mobile's outspoken CEO John Legere has never minced words when addressing the competition and he's been known to ruffle some feathers on occasion (you can ask Sprint boss Marcelo Claure about that). However, his latest Internet tirade isn't directed at Sprint or Verizon or AT&T, it's at a minority of customers who have been "stealing data" from T-Mobile through unauthorized tethering. When customers purchase T-Mobile's unlimited 4G LTE plan for their smartphones, they receive a fixed amount of LTE for tethering at no extra cost. Legere frames the offering as a courtesy for those times when...
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Just over a month ago, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) really stuck it to AT&T, fining the communications giant a whopping $100 million fine for misleading customers with regards to throttling data speeds. After hearing from thousands of disgruntled customers over the past few years that complained about throttling, the FCC decided that it had heard enough. “Unlimited means unlimited,” said FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc when the record fine was announced. “As today’s action demonstrates, the Commission is committed to holding accountable those broadband providers who...
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