Items tagged with throttling
Apple drew a lot of scrutiny and backlash when it was discovered that the company was secretly throttling performance of select iPhones models in order to preserve battery life. While the practice was understandable given that lithium-ion batteries degrade over time, the fact that Apple was so secretive about the practice -- and did not notify customers at all about the performance throttling -- is what caused many customers to become upset, Apple faced a number of class-action lawsuits -- 66 to be exact -- for its CPU throttling, and it now looks as though a settlement has been reached. According to the proposed settlement, Apple will pay up at a minimum $310 million, and up to...
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AT&T is finally facing the music with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for its "Unlimited Data" practices – to the tune of $60 million -- 8 years after it first fleeced customers. The problem lies in the fact that AT&T marketed its smartphone plans as having unlimited data, but instead began to throttle customer's connections after surpassing preset data thresholds during their monthly billing cycle. According to the FTC, AT&T "misled" customers over throttling practices for unlimited data, and added that in many cases, customers found their cell service "difficult or nearly impossible to use" once the restrictions were put into place on their accounts. In some cases,...
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Report Shows Wireless Carriers Are Cheaping Out And Throttling Your Video Streams Whenever They Want
We all know that wireless carriers throttle data. After all, throttling has been commonplace ever since carriers moved from their "buckets" of data in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB sizes, for example. Once carriers started fully embracing unlimited data, they started implementing policies where they would throttle data once customers reached a certain threshold (usually around 20GB) if cell towers are overloaded. But now new research shows that carriers are throttling video streams even when customers have not reached the carrier-set threshold or when "data congestion" isn’t a serious problem on the network. This information comes from Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts Amhert,...
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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 be sure this never happens in their state, and a bill has been introduced in the Texas House of Representatives...
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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 to the point that customers would simply give up and purchase a new device. Apple of course garnered...
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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 as a command and control resource." This rolling command center tracks, organizes, and prioritizes...
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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 than the OnePlus 6 -- an Android superphone in its own right, with 8GB of RAM and a near bone-stock...
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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 i9 option reported clock speeds as low as 2.2GHz instead of its base clock of 2.9GHz. Apple...
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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 wireless customers, but ultimately throttled speeds by up to 90 percent in some instances. AT&T...
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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 Verge received statements from both HTC and Lenovo/Motorola on the issue. A representative for HTC...
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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 mechanism in iOS 11.2. The lawsuit alleges that Apple is "purposefully slowing down older iPhone models...
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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 22GB. Sprint sets its limit at 23GB, while T-Mobile previously bettered the completion with a 32GB prioritization...
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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 was throttling services like Netflix. Verizon implicitly admitted that there recently had been...
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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 clear to customers at first — it was not until customers complained about the reduced data speeds that...
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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 its old policy, customers on AT&T’s legacy unlimited data plans are throttled back to near-dialup...
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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 broadband access isn't available or convenient. Should a customer reach their high-speed tethering...
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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 fail to be fully transparent about data limits.” However, AT&T isn’t going to pay the massive...
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If AT&T had its way, it all of its smartphone users would be on metered Mobile Share Value plans. After all, the plans allow AT&T to sell customers buckets of data each month and hit them with overages if they go over their allotted amount. However, AT&T still has a sizable amount of customers still clinging to less lucrative (to AT&T) unlimited data plans. Even though AT&T offers data plans ranging from 300MB to 50GB (with popular sweets spots being in the 6GB to 15GB tier), the wireless carrier has in the past cracked down on unlimited data customers that exceeded “only” 5GB of data. That hardly seems fair, and the FTC agrees. Late last year, the FTC filed a lawsuit against...
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The concept of net neutrality has been a hot-button topic over the past few years, particularly as evidence by fundamental ISP misconduct that has grown more prevalent. In addition, an increasing number of customers have found themselves caught in the crossfire between two huge corporations (ISPs and content providers especially) with little to no recourse... Net neutrality is an attractive concept, particularly if you've followed the ways the cable and telco companies have gouged customers in recent years, and I'm a fan of the idea on some level -- but only to a limited extent. There are two problems with net neutrality as its commonly proposed... Net Neutrality Won't Fix ISP Throttling, Here's...
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The concept of net neutrality has been a hot-button topic over the past few years, particularly as evidence by fundamental ISP misconduct that has grown more prevalent. In addition, an increasing number of customers have found themselves caught in the crossfire between two huge corporations (ISPs and content providers especially) with little to no recourse. Net neutrality, as it's generally explained, is the idea that no company should be allowed to treat traffic differently than other traffic. Information should flow with equal priority and consumers shouldn't end up paying more for "priority service" on certain applications. ...
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We've covered the battles between ISPs and various large-scale content providers multiple times before. From deliberately throttling Netflix users to older spats that prevented Time Warner customers from watching cable channels they'd legally paid for, these kinds of disagreements are common in America these days. A new report from M-Lab, however, illustrates the degree to which these battles can impact all of an ISPs customers, including those who don't use video on demand services like Netflix. Details on how M-Lab configured its tests are available in this PDF, but the company ran its benchmarks and monitoring by setting up multiple access points within a single location and testing network...
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Earlier this week, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler penned an open letter to Verizon telling the wireless carrier that he's "deeply troubled" by its decision to throttle data for the top 5 percent of users subscribed to the company's unlimited data plans. The way Wheeler sees it, Verizon isn't trying to relieve network congestion, but is instead targeting a group of users to squeeze more money out of them. Not so, says Verizon. The Verge got its hands on a copy of Verizon's response to Wheeler's angry letter. Verizon's response highlights the fact that customers will only see slowdowns in data service "under very limited circumstances" and only at "particular cell sites experiencing unusually high demand."...
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