Verizon Wireless Applies Congestion Management for Customers on Unlimited Usage Plans

About 22 percent of Verizon Wireless customers are on unlimited usage plans. Of those customers, about five percent are deemed by Verizon Wireless to be "heavy users" consuming 4.7 Gbytes a month of data, or more.



So Verizon now manages data connection speeds for users on unlimited Long Term Evolution 4G plans, at specific cell sites experiencing congestion or high demand, while those heavy users are being served from the congested, or potentially-congested cell sites, while the congestion lasts. 



The speed management practices are applied to the heavy users only when congestion at congested cell sites exists, and there is no throttling of speeds after such events. 



Verizon customers on metered plans will not be affected, Verizon says. 



"Admission control" traditionally has been a key means for preserving quality of experience on networks facing high demand at peak hours. 



Internet access services traditionally have not used such mechanisms, and simply degrade under load. 



Observers might disagree about whether admission control is the best way to preserve quality of experience at times of high network demand. But it does work.