Verizon Cracks Down on Excessive Data Users
Verizon is cracking down on excessive data users. Starting this fall, unlimited customers gobbling data amounts in excess of the carrier's largest plan may be cut off.
The carrier has started notifying "a very small group" of subscribers about their options: move to a new Verizon plan by Aug. 31 or find a new mobile provider. Folks hunting Pokemon and streaming videos at disproportionate rates could find their line disconnected.
According to Droid Life, those customers have up to 50 days to reactivate by switching to one of the company's limited plans—most likely the largest, 100GB option, which costs $450 per month.
Smaller packages are available with 2GB for $35, 4GB for $50, 8GB for $70, 16GB for $90, and 24GB for $110. Add $20 for each phone or $10 for each tablet or hotspot used on the plan.
Verizon stopped offering unlimited plans to new customers in 2011. A year later, it required those who were upgrading service to ditch unlimited. So at this point, fewer than 1 percent of customers are on unlimited plans. And only a fraction of them use inordinate amounts of data.
"The users receiving the notifications have completed the terms of their contracts and are using data amounts hundreds of times more than the average user," a Verizon spokeswoman told PCMag.
"While the Verizon plan at 100GB is designed to be shared across multiple users, these users are using significantly more than that on a single device."
The company in 2014 began throttling top unlimited subscribers on 4G LTE, but quickly backtracked amidst pressure from regulators.
This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.