We've reached out to Verizon for its response to the letter, and we'll let you know if it has something to say. With that said, it's no secret that larger US carriers (chiefly AT&T and Verizon) have been doing their utmost to push customers towards more lucrative capped plans. Verizon itself requires that you buy new devices at full price if you want to keep unlimited data; AT&T has been throttling unlimited plans (and occasionally restricting features) for some time.

Mead and company may contend that unlimited users are more likely to choke the network. However, that could be a difficult argument to make when Verizon is targeting only unlimited customers, not capped users who chew up similar amounts of bandwidth. The provider also can't point to the lack of penalties for AT&T's actions, since that carrier didn't agree to open access rules for its LTE frequencies. Unless Verizon can persuade the FCC that throttling is genuinely necessary, it may have to reconsider its strategy.

[Image credit: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images]