Experiencing Slow Speeds
Subscribers of two of the best internet providers in the US, Verizon® and AT&T® recently reported that they are experiencing slow speeds in their unlimited data plans. It is to be noted that both the ISPs reinstated their unlimited plans recently to compete with T-Mobile® and Sprint®, and that has resulted in overwhelming demands for the best internet from them.
Just like highway traffic, the greater demands for data albeit through increasing usage or subscribers, is causing slower speeds and that is quite natural. Interestingly, both Verizon® and AT&T® have double the number of subscribers than T-Mobile® and Sprint®.
The ISPs can only follow the norms of net neutrality and enable equal internet speed for subscribers without blocking particular websites or products. Even the unlimited internet plans from T-Mobile® and Verizon® recently had a cap on video buffering quality and that was done to ease out traffic in their network. However, staunch advocates of net neutrality including Telco giants do not favor that approach, as data caps would violate the FCC net neutrality regulations.
Verizon® and T-Mobile® had a tug of war for best internet speeds at the start of this year, and recently, T-Mobile® surged ahead of the former with an average LTE download speed of 17.5 Mbps as opposed to 14.9 Mbps of Verizon® indicate the study.
FCC Net Neutrality Regulations
Last month, the wireless company OpenSignal® resourced more than five billion measurements from 172,919 smartphones in the US to conduct a study for the same. The wireless company published regular look at wireless carrier networks and found drops in the 4G speeds of Verizon® and AT&T® post the two ISPs launched unlimited data packages in February. However, T-Mobile® and Sprint®, who have had unlimited wireless data plans for longer, saw an improved wireless performance over the past six months.
As per the reports of Ericsson®, North American smartphone users would consume 25 GB of data per month in the year 2022, which is around 5 GB a month at present. With digital market becoming prominent and unlimited plans popular, consumers spend more time streaming videos on their smartphones in content-driven platforms and that is also one of the primary causes of a decline in speeds.
