You’ve used up all your cellular data for the month and now your speeds are much slower. This is known as data throttling, a common practice by wireless carriers. In this article, I’ll answer the question, “What is data throttling?” and talk about some ways you can avoid slow data speeds!
What Is Data Throttling?
Data throttling is the practice of wireless carriers to slow down your cellular data speeds after you’ve exceeded your data limit. Your data limit depends on which cell phone plan you’ve signed up for.
Carriers often used to let you continue using high-speed data after you exceeded your data limit, but then they’d hit you with overage charges. Those overage charges were usually quite expensive and led to some very high cell phone bills. Today, the common practice is to let you keep using cellular data, but to slow your speeds down.
When Is Data Throttled?
The amount of data you can use before your speeds are throttled depends on your cell phone plan. When you research plans using our cell phone comparison tool, we’ll tell you when your data speeds are throttled and how slow they’re throttled to for each and every plan!
How Slow Is Throttled Data?
The speed of throttled data also depends on your cell phone plan as well as your wireless carrier. Data speeds can be throttled anywhere from 2G to 3G speeds. In other words, it’ll be much slower, especially if you’re used to using 4G LTE data.
However, these data speeds are fast enough to be reliable when you don't have Wi-Fi.
An Example Of Data Throttling
Although data throttling varies depending on your plan and carrier, I thought it would helpful to give you a real-world example of what throttling looks like. Let's take a look at how data is throttled on my cell phone plan — the Verizon Prepaid Plan.
Data speeds are throttled on Verizon Prepaid Plans once you’ve used the amount of data you’ve prepaid for. Since I have the 5 GB plan, my speeds are throttled after I’ve used 5 GB of 4G LTE data. The speed of my data is throttled to 128 kbps, which is about twice as fast as 2G, but not as fast as 3G.
I'm not a heavy data user, so I almost never exceed my 5 GB monthly allotment. This plan also includes rollover data. When I only use 2 GB of data during a month, those extra 3 GB of data roll over to the next month.
When Does Data Throttling End?
Typically, you make monthly payments for your cell phone plan. In most cases, a new period begins every month on the date of that payment. When the new period begins, your data usage is usually reset, and your speed won’t be throttled again until you’ve exceeded your monthly data limit again.
Is Data Throttling Different From Data Deprioritization?
Yes, data throttling is different than data deprioritization. While data is typically throttled once you've used a certain amount of data, deprioritization often occurs when you're trying to use data in a crowded area where many others are trying to use data at the same time.
Certain cell phone carriers will prioritize customers on more premium plans over customers on standard plans. In crowded areas, my data speeds sometimes get deprioritized so Verizon can provide faster data speeds to customers on some of their unlimited plans.
How Can I Avoid Slow Data Speeds?
Most cell phones have built-in settings and apps that can track data usage. For example, the Cellular section in the iPhone Settings app keeps track of your data usage over a current period. You can reset the data statistics every month, which will help you keep track of how much data you're actually using.
Most carriers also have free apps that will let you keep track of the data usage on your cell phone plan.
Another surefire way to avoid slow data speeds is to switch to a plan with more cellular data. Most unlimited data plans don't throttle speeds until you've used 22 or 23 GB. Some plans don't throttle until you've used 75 GB!
If you don't want to pay for a more expensive cell phone plan, there are ways to cut back on data usage. Check out our article six data-saving tips!
Are There Any Plans That Don't Throttle Data?
Yes, there are some plans that won't throttle the speeds of your cellular data. However, plans that don't throttle data often charge overages — meaning that if you exceed your data cap, they'll begin charging you for the extra data you use. As you can imagine, this can get very expensive very quickly.
Throttling: Explained!
You now know everything there is to know about data throttling. Slow speeds aren’t any fun, but you can maximize the amount of high speed data you can use by exploring unlimited data cell phone plans. If you have any other questions about cell phone plans or cellular data, leave a comment below!
Thanks for reading,
David L.
