Related Articles
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.
Virgin Mobile
If this story sounds familiar, that’s because back in July 2011, Virgin Mobile said it was going to begin throttling in October to keep up with heavy data demands.
At that time, CNET’s Roger Cheng reported that only about 3 percent of Virgin Mobile customers actually exceed this 2.5GB cap.
By the time September rolled around, however, the carrier announced it would postpone its throttling plans to 2012.
According to Virgin Mobile’s press release, users who use more than 2.5GB a month on their Beyond Talk Plan will have data speeds reduced to 256Kbps or below for the rest of the month. That means slower page loads, slower file downloads, and more lag-time for streaming media.
Throttling will not affect texting or calling abilities, and data speeds will return as usual once the next plan month starts.
Slowing down customer data plans is nothing new, and carriers including T-Mobile already do it. But what do you guys think when carriers who advertise “unlimited” data only do so under certain conditions such as these?
