Because wireless carriers don’t trust their own networks, they set things like throttling caps in place on the “unlimited” data plans that they sell you. It’s a way for them to have an excuse when they are worried that heavy data users will impact the connections that other users have on their networks. Those caps allow them to throttle your connection, should you eclipse them in a billing cycle. It’s super weak, especially when every single one of them spends most of their days bragging about and trying to convince you that they have the best network.
T-Mobile has always offered one of the higher throttling caps at around 28GB. As of yesterday, though, they increased it to 30GB.
You’ll see caps that start at around 22GB of usage in a month (Verizon and AT&T), so T-Mobile is certainly offering its users a chance to use more data before they might see “network management” take over their connection. That still doesn’t help make their case for needing a cap in the first place. Is your plan unlimited or not? Can your network handle an unlimited amount of usage? If not, stop calling them “unlimited,” because “unlimited” to me means WITHOUT LIMITS.
But hey, T-Mobile customers, feel good about that extra 2GB on your “unlimited” plan.
COMPETITION brought back unlimited data to the industry. the industry is going to try hard to consolidate by eliminating sprint. consumers should resist a sprint buyout at all costs
deprioritization != throttling
You won’t be throttled down to a certain speed after you reach the soft cap. I’ve hit it several months and saw no decrease in speeds, same with other people. What happens is you’re slowed down only on a congested tower, which isn’t all that unreasonable. Depending on where you live, you won’t even notice a difference.
Inching our way back to true unlimited, a few gigs at a time…..
Can someone explain something to me please. I’m currently on Verizon’s old grandfathered unlimited plan and I’ve always been on the fence about switching to T-Mobile when they offered the right plan.
I see they are CONSTANTLY making changes to their unlimited plan. If I went with T-Mobile right now would I be locked into the exact plan they over now for 2 years? Or when they make changes would those changes affect me? For example let’s just say they change the data limit before you’re throttled again. Would that change mine or would I be locked into the plan where it doesn’t throttle until 30GB? Thanks!
You will keep the plan you got when you signed up with T-mobile. You will however have the option to switch to whatever new plan they come up with. You do not have to change if you dont want to.
This. This right here: ” It’s super weak, especially when every single one of them spends most of their days bragging about and trying to convince you that they have the best network”.
In speaking with T-Mobile support, this is only in effect if you’re on a tower that is heavily congested at the time. It’s more-so de-prioritizing than throttling, as if the tower isn’t under heavy use, your speeds are unaffected. Were they lying? Also- I totally get the issue with this being called unlimited, as there is clearly a limit, I just also don’t think it’s really throttling either…
deprioritzation is not throttling idiot writer.
T-Mobile is doing it the right way. They base it off of the top 3% of users data. I remember it used to be 26gb then 28 and now 30gb. So since mostly everyone on T-Mobile has unlimited data the number will keep going up as customer continue to use more data then before.
“The network built for unlimited data.” yet they used to throttle video to 1.5mbps (dl), max the quality to 480p, set a 22GB limit (then 26, then 28, now 30)… is it really built for unlimited data?
I’m not a T-Mobile customer but I though the new plan didn’t mess with video quality and limit it to 480p?
Hey Kellen can we have a bit of clarification? Is this cap temporary as in due to network congestion and lifted once the congestion subsides, or is this cap active until the next billing cycle begins? I was of the understanding it was the former.
I’m pretty sure its only during network congestion. If it is not congested you aren’t throttled or if you switch to a different tower you aren’t throttled any more.
I expect Verizon to match this and AT&T to DECREASE their throttling threshold in response.
Lol no. At&t and Sprint have had time to adjust their caps and neither has T-Mobile is the only one that keeps raising their soft limit
That was sarcasm
Lol
Has anyone here exceeded this number to see if it is indeed a throttling cap or if it works as they describe (throttled only when congested/needed). If it works as the carriers describe, then you shouldn’t be calling this a “throttling cap” at all since it is virtually “unlimited” data. If one can use 100+ GBs of data with little to no throttling/deprioritization, then I don’t know why you’re complaining about these “caps” in the first place.
I used 28GB one month, when I was on the road a lot. When I got back home to Manhattan, all day especially in mid-town my speed never really exceeded 1 – 2 Mbps the day after my my useage cycle reset my speed wen right back up to 60Mbps in the same location. So they are serious about throttling in congested areas.
Well you’re in Manhattan too.. it doesn’t get much more congested than that, hah. I wonder how likely it is in a much less population dense city/town too. Jason Frisbee below says he exceeded the cap this past month and didn’t see any slowdown. I would try it out myself, but I’m on their old 6GB SC plan and happy still with 20 GBs of data stash saved up for when I have a heavy month.
I have the T-Mobile one plus international with unlimited 4g LTE Hotspot and I have used over 80gb this month with no slow down. I use it for Xbox one for downloads and to stream movies. I was just downloading a gamd yesterday and Xbox shows your download speed and it was consistently between 25-50 MB/s. You get a text when you are over the cap but like I said no slow down for me. I do live in a rural area tho.
I use over the 28GB (now 30GB) limit nearly every month. I have yet to be throttled – though this is likely due to where I live.
The rural farm-town that I live in is, for some reason, apparently the only rural area T-mobile covers with LTE; at least, according to all the folks that don’t actually use T-Mobile. 😉.
I got my first text warning last week. I did notice that they throttled me a bit because YouTube was running a lot slower and would run at a lower resolution longer before it picked up to 1080. I’m in the outskirts of the Seattle area.
It’s a deprioritization cap you get sent a message saying you might be slowed down, if you are downtown in a big city expect unusable data. If you are in a less crowded area you should be fine
I’ve gone over the previous 28gb cap multiple times in the past and have never been slowed down at that point. I did get slowed down closer to the city I am near but I was at about 52gb by then. So it did feel like it was a congested tower for deprioritizing my connection.
I am a HEAVY data user – I came over from the original Verizon unlimited – GIGANTIC mistake. I averaged 75-95g per month (NO hot-spotting) … I have been on T-Mobile for 3 months .. I hit 28 (now 30) pretty damn fast and I can ATTEST !!! at the limit you get throttled (in my area New Orleans) AND IT NEVER LETS UP !!!! EVER !!!!! .. Only the most basic functions work until the phone hits the next billing cycle. So in my area – Its a 30gig plan – and thats it … I am going back to Verizon
This was the first month I’ve hit the 28GB “cap”, primarily because of getting a new phone, installing all the apps, then the Nougat update, to then wipe and do it all over again. This is after almost 2 years on T-Mobile and 5+ years on Verizon with 6GB on my plan. Still haven’t seen a slowdown.
Competition will keep driving these caps up. 50GB Cap and 50 GB Hotspot by next year.
By summer.
It’s based on the top 3% of data users, thats why T-Mobile keeps raising it cuz everyone is switching to T-Mobile one. So the more data we use it might eventually get to 50gb lol
I think the issue we all have is the marketing angle and naming scheme…otherwise it’s pretty badass what TMO has been doing the last few years to compete.
Oh good. An opportunity of letting us know T-Mo upped their soft-cap to 30Gb got turned into whining.
We all know a network supporting unlimited data and users is technically impossible. Suggesting that it is, or that this is what the carriers are implying that they offer is absurd. We know better. You know better. The carriers know better. Everyone knows better. Stop pretending you don’t as an excuse to rant and rage. It’s childish. It’s annoying. It gets in the way of providing something actually relevant/useful.
*puts on flameproof suit*
Have a great day, guys. /smh
You are a brave soul for writing that one up haha.
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I’ve been saying that for YEARS and I get called all sort of names on several boards and being told I don’t know what I’m talking about. These people want truly unlimited data and they think it’s possible because they want it to be.
Necro-post activated!
*grin*
Okay, sorry for this but you hit the nail on the head. There’s a lyric which describes this behavior perfectly:
Hearing only what you want to hear and knowing only what you’ve heard.
When these folks are given data that doesn’t fit their narrative, it simply isn’t processed. Their bias-filter tunes it out. Best to just ignore ’em – you cannot reason with someone who cannot reason.
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Thats very true lol
While I agree that caps on unlimited is stupid, I’m not going to bitch or be upset about one carrier being better than the rest to their customers.
If you want to impress me, add a zero to the end of that number.
Better yet, no number 🙂
How does one even rack up 300GB of data?
It takes some time and dedication. The 25Mbps FCC definition of broadband internet helps.
HD Video will do it very quickly. I’m at 146 GB after 6 days…
Not sure how you even use this much between music not being counted, wifi everywhere, etc.
5G can’t come fast enough.
Wifi isn’t everywhere, as you put it, unless you want to connect to random unsecured networks.
My phones got good enough security. I’m not worried about the CIA.
And even then, I mean businesses, friends, etc have wifi. If it doesn’t, it’s probably somewhere you can do without your phone for a bit.
I’m talking criminals/hackers who steal personal info from unsecured WiFi, not the CIA or NSA.
And why should i go without using my phone for a bit when I’m out just because there isn’t a secure WiFi connection available to me? That’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen you post. People pay their carrier for voice AND data precisely so they can use their smartphone as it was intended to be used.
LOL people aren’t worried about connecting to public WiFi because of the CIA, it’s because anyone else on that public network can open up a packet capture and see everything you’re doing on that network.
Well it depends on the plan. I am pretty certain Music Freedom, and Bing On and everything else is NOT included in the T-Mobile ONE plans.
They were on other plans though (and still are).
Music IS counted, though. I used to have a 10GB plan and I would never exceed 7GBs of usage. However, after switching to unlimited, the GB usage skyrockets to 25-30GB per month, most coming from Play Music.
The new one plans now count music toward the cap, and tethering also counts towards the cap.
Okay:
Music Freedom and Binge On are (were) parts of Simple Choice plans that had GB limits (2GB, 6GB, 10GB, etc) on LTE usage and the music/video did not count against the 2/6/10 allotment. It *still* counted against the 28GB de-prioritization barrier though.
Since T-Mobile ONE does not have a GB limit of LTE usage, Music Freedom and Binge On are not offered, as they would be meaningless. The de-prioritization barrier however, is still in effect.
Music and video do count against the 30GB.
Sadly, all carriers have caps on their unlimited plans now. At least TMo gives their customers a longer leash than the rest, however.
Yep and it’s dumb. Dumby dumb.
I completely agree.
It’s not a cap. Plenty of people reach hundreds of gigs on these plans and still get blazing fast speeds.
I agree, it is blazing fast, regardless of the use. 6 days into this month on T-Mobile One Plus International ($95/mo with autopay) and I am at 146 GB. I turned my HD on at the beginning of this bill cycle. That’s how much data I used last month in 28 days, with the HD option off (rarely used the HD Day Passes). We had been using Binge-On features for 6 months and didn’t have much issue with SD video
I do not notice any ‘throttling’ and we stream exclusively in our house (3 people) as we have no cable. 1-2 people are streaming video in HD for most of the day, plus internet use, music streaming, gaming on 3 consoles and keeping multiple laptops/PCs updated. I even work from home and rely on this connection to manage my business.
I never intended us to be on track to use over 700GB in a month – we’ll see how T-Mobile reacts, as this is 99.9999% hotspot usage. In fact I don’t even use this phone for calls – as it sits in the window to get 4-5 bars all day and is our primary internet source (no cable/dsl in area – 4g lte is the only option). I am no where near a congested area and I LOVE my T-Mobile as we finally have a connection to the real world, beyond our cell phone screens.
Even though I feel guilty for the amount of data I’ll be using, I was not able to turn the HD back off – go figure.