Verizon Scolds FiOS User For Consuming Seven Terabytes Monthly A few years ago I noted that while Verizon's FiOS service is technically uncapped, a very small number of users can find themselves being scolded by Verizon for consuming an excessive amount of bandwidth. However, it takes real leg work to reach this point -- as in closing in on the four terabyte consumption mark -- several months in a row -- before the Verizon powers that be send you a nastygram.

One Verizon regular reaches out to note he's the latest to receive one of these letters after consuming seven terabytes of data for several consecutive months, predominately, he claims, courtesy of volunteer-run web crawling projects like Folding@Home and Seti@Home. The user says they pay $315 a month for Verizon's top-shelf, 500 Mbps plan. The letter informs the users the heavy usage violate's Verizon's terms of service, and if the consumption doesn't drop dramatically, his line will be disconnected in around two-months time. The letter does not define what an acceptable usage threshold is, though again site regulars have pegged the line at anywhere from four to ten terabytes per month, depending on the market. "If you break it down it accounts to a single ~24 hours of usage at the full 500Mbps, or 20Mbps for a continuous 30 days," argues the user. "My usage is irregular and usually spikes up and down and sometimes the connection will sit idle for a day or two at a time. It makes me curious why 500Mbps is even offered if just using a whopping four percent of that connection is prohibited." ISPs of course like to have some kind of distinguishing line between residential and business accounts, and usually encourage these kinds of heavy users to buy a business line with a service-level agreement. However where than line actually is can be murky; in a ISPs of course like to haveof distinguishing line between residential and business accounts, and usually encourage these kinds of heavy users to buy a business line with a service-level agreement. However where than line actually is can be murky; in a blog post last year for example , Verizon stated that the company "doesn’t cap usage in any way." Similarly, the letters to consumers about over-use fail to illustrate precisely how much -- is too much.







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Most recommended from 126 comments



davidc502

join:2002-03-06

Mount Juliet, TN 1 edit 11 recommendations davidc502 Member This doesn't hurt Verizon (Excessive usage)



This isn't about money. This is about Control IMHO.



My take is, they shouldn't offer Gigabit or 500mbps service if they aren't willing to give the bandwidth that can be used with it.



Maybe if this user was paying 70 bucks a month, that would be a different story, but 300+ bucks a month... He should have Unlimited throughput.



************ So here's the thing ************



If you had a 50mbps connection, and used 2mbps for 30 days, would that be a violation of TOS? it's the exact same ratio?



Damn ISP's tick me off Verizon doesn't pay but around a quarter of a Cent for every Gigabyte crossing egress (4Gigs would equal 1 cent). So at that rate, 6 Terabytes would cost Verizon around $15.36 for the month.This isn't about money. This is about Control IMHO.My take is, they shouldn't offer Gigabit or 500mbps service if they aren't willing to give the bandwidth that can be used with it.Maybe if this user was paying 70 bucks a month, that would be a different story, but 300+ bucks a month... He should have Unlimited throughput.************ So here's the thing ************If you had a 50mbps connection, and used 2mbps for 30 days, would that be a violation of TOS? it's the exact same ratio?Damn ISP's tick me off

norm

join:2012-10-18

Pittsburgh, PA 8 recommendations norm Member Don't use it or lose it. If Verizon wants to cap then disappointingly do it. Put it on paper. No more smoke and mirrors, just black ink on white paper. I'd like to see them try to justify it when monthly usage is a measly 4%. EnerJi

join:2011-02-19

Dallas, TX 5 recommendations EnerJi Member Not excessive usage for 500Mbps plan If the user were on a 30-50 Mbps plan, I would understand Verizon's position. Consumer broadband is not priced to be delivered like a full business product, where the business pays for a 100% committed rate and is free to max their throughput 24x7 without restriction.



That said, I would expect much more leniency and a much higher "soft cap" for a top-of-the-line 500Mbps user. I don't know where the line is, but 7TB feels much too low to me.

Steve B

Premium Member

join:2004-08-02

Auburn, WA 5 recommendations Steve B Premium Member WTH Seriously though. If they're paying that much, VZ needs to back off AND if VZ is going to bitch about too much data, they need to define how much data is too much. That's total BS. 46436203 (banned)

join:2013-01-03 3 recommendations 46436203 (banned) Member Meanwhile, over in Time Warner Cable land...









Has Verizon ever sent out a notice like this?



Verizon is digging their own grave and throwing away all the goodwill they generated by being the first to build out FTTP.



Doesn't feel so bad living in a Time Warner/AT&T market anymore with AT&T rolling out 1 Gbps symmetrical uncapped service for $70 a month whereas Verizon is charging $300+ per month for a CAPPED 500 Mbps fiber offering.



Even Time Warner's 300 Mbps speed tier is a better value than Verizon's capped Internet.



All those years of holding out and not having FiOS looks to have paid off because now it's FiOS users who are getting the short end of the stick. Has Verizon ever sent out a notice like this?Verizon is digging their own grave and throwing away all the goodwill they generated by being the first to build out FTTP.Doesn't feel so bad living in a Time Warner/AT&T market anymore with AT&T rolling out 1 Gbps symmetrical uncapped service for $70 a month whereas Verizon is charging $300+ per month for a CAPPED 500 Mbps fiber offering.Even Time Warner's 300 Mbps speed tier is a better value than Verizon's capped Internet.All those years of holding out and not having FiOS looks to have paid off because now it's FiOS users who are getting the short end of the stick. Remember when everyone used to be envious of Verizon FiOS? amungus

Premium Member

join:2004-11-26

America 2 recommendations amungus Premium Member Fantastic argument It warms my heart to see someone see this as a percentage of available usage over time.



Sure, I "get it" that there are differences between residential and business accounts, but overall consumption of the available speed should not necessarily be one of them.

Open ports, static IP addresses, ability to provision MPLS, and SLAs should be the major differentiators (and traditionally, they have been...).



If it's a network issue, then throttle when necessary, such as when it impedes another customer's ability to use the service in a similar fashion.

...I'm doubtful that a fiber connection set at anything less than 1Gbps would even need this.



All that being said, 7TB is not an insignificant amount of data. 46436203 (banned)

join:2013-01-03 2 recommendations 46436203 (banned) Member Time to file an FCC complaint? This is absolutely ridiculous -- Verizon is not specifying how much data its users are allowed to use, how much data they have used, nor are they providing any way for the customer to measure how much data they use, and they do all of this while advertising "unlimited" service.



This has to be a violation of some law somewhere. Bandwidth caps are inherently unreasonable... but arbitrary bandwidth caps that you have no idea whether or not you're hitting them? This is even worse than the Comcast fiasco. videomatic3

join:2003-12-12

Pleasanton, CA 1 edit 2 recommendations videomatic3 Member I thought When houkouonchi originally had his first letter he used 77tb they determined 10tb is the limit, and he was on 2 150/65 lines, one business, one residential, I could be wrong but now it seems like verizon lowered their threshold.