throttling

What could be worse than a surprise overage fee? For some people it's having their wireless carrier put the brakes on their data service.

In this edition of Ask Maggie, one reader wants to know whether it's worth keeping his AT&T unlimited data plan after AT&T has warned him that his service will be slowed down because he's in the top 5 percent of data users. Ask Maggie also offers advice on whether to buy the lower priced iPhone 4 or the newer iPhone 4S.

Is AT&T giving me a hint … Read more

Just as disappointing it is to see that the mimosa brunch you're attending isn't really that "bottomless" if the waiter is going to frequent your table a lot less after your sixth drink, so too is the news that Virgin Mobile will start slowing down their customers' data speeds once they exceed a certain point.

Recently, Virgin Mobile released a press release announcing that they will throttle data speeds for users who exceed 2.5GB a month, starting March 23.

If this story sounds familiar, that's because back in July 2011, Virgin Mobile said it … Read more

Sprint Nextel is supposed to be the carrier with no limits. Or is it?

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse told investors today that his company actually places limits on the data connection of 1 percent of its customers, a practice in the industry known as throttling.

"For those that want to abuse it, we can knock them off," Hesse said.

A few publications, including Dow Jones Newswires and Boy Genius Report, rightfully took this as the carrier placing the limits on its supposedly "truly unlimited" data plans.

But Sprint executive Bill White denied this was the case. … Read more

The system console lists much of the output of running programs as they perform various tasks, which includes errors and warnings that are not otherwise shown to you. For instance, if you can't start up Web sharing on your system but don't see any error messages, then you can check in the Console utility to see if any console messages are generated there when you try to enable Web sharing.

Even if you do not know what the error messages mean, you can copy them and ask people about them to get more insight into how to troubleshoot … Read more

Your home's Internet router is an idiot. It is the one device you have that, theoretically, could accurately tell you how fast your Internet connection is over time, and who in your house is using up the bandwidth. But it does none of that.

It's not in the name of simplicity, either. The software that's baked into demented routers is not, for the most part, user-friendly. It's just dumb, because dumb is cheap.

Adventurous geeks who have the right hardware can upgrade a router by reprogramming it with an open-source replacement operating environment, like DD-WRT or … Read more

AT&T confirmed today that it will begin throttling the heaviest data users of its wireless network starting October 1.

The new policy will affect only customers who still have an unlimited data plan, and only apply to the top 5 percent of that base. Throttling is when a carrier will slow down the connection of a device to keep it from consuming more data. AT&T hasn't specified what the threshold will be--it says the amount of data that would trigger throttling would vary from month to month.

AT&T is just the latest carrier … Read more

AT&T may be looking at new ways to control data hogs on its wireless network.

The company is rumored to be considering throttling super-heavy data users and restricting them to slower speeds in an effort to better manage its network and keep up with demand for mobile data, according to the blog 9to5mac.

The new policy could start the first in October, which is right around the time that Apple is expected to launch its next generation iPhone, the blog said.

AT&T wouldn't be the first wireless operator to employ such tactics. T-Mobile USA, which … Read more

The mobile world moves at a breakneck pace, and it's difficult to keep up--even without the technical jargon most industry insiders throw around. And they do love to toss those terms about.

Whether it's the difference between CDMA and GSM, the importance of backhaul to the speed of your connection, or what metering means, it's easy to have information blow over your head when reading about this field.

So for some light Saturday reading, we thought it would be nice to explain what exactly telecom experts are talking about when they use these terms they assume everyone … Read more

Virgin Mobile, the prepaid arm of Sprint Nextel, said today that it is moving away from a fully unlimited data plan and will begin to slow the connection speed of its more excessive bandwidth-hogging customers in October.

Virgin said that customers who exceed 2.5 gigabytes of data in a month will see reduced speeds, a practice known as throttling. The company said less than 3 percent of its customer base go over that mark. The policy will affect all customers.

Virgin is the latest carrier to acknowledge the pressures that heavy data usage by its customers have placed on it. Last week, Verizon Wireless switched to a tiered data plan, following AT&T's move last year. T-Mobile also throttles its customers' connection speeds.

As further evidence of the pressures Virgin faces, the company also unveiled new plans starting July 20 that raise the price of its cheapest options. Its 300-minute plan, which includes unlimited messaging and data, costs $35, $10 more than before. Its 1,200-minute plan goes from $40 to $45.

The company did cut its $60 unlimited calling plan down to $55, likely an acknowledgement of the competitive threat presented by MetroPCS and Leap Wireless. The company also said it would waive the $10 add-on fee for BlackBerry smartphones.

The plans were first reported by Fierce Wireless.

Virgin has been a major factor for much of Sprint's turnaround with its customer base. While winning back contract customers has been difficult, the carrier has seen explosive growth in the prepaid segment, where customers pay on a month-to-month basis and can leave at any time. … Read more