Have I been throttled?

[bobjohnson201]

Using nexus on straight talk att and my speeds have normally been 5-7 for download speeds, and slightly over 2 for upload speeds. For the past few days I've been noticing that my downloads on the play store are taking much longer, so I ran some speed tests yesterday and was getting between 0.03-0.3 for download speeds! today is the same thing... i have good signal and everything. one thing to note though is that the upload speeds have been like 1.5-1.8 ish, so not much of a difference for that. I have used 1.73 GB of data so far this month, so not too much. So, have I been throttled? I never received any kind of warning or anything. And if not, why the sudden, significant drop in speeds?

 

[PWC Realtor]

Have you used a bunch of data in one day or used data consistently for a period of time? ATT straight talk is famous for enforcing the no streaming /downloading along with the 100MB per day rules.

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[bobjohnson201]

Have you used a bunch of data in one day or used data consistently for a period of time? ATT straight talk is famous for enforcing the no streaming /downloading along with the 100MB per day rules.

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hmm im not sure about that. this month's cycle ends on jan 5, and ive used a total of 1.73 GB so far, but i think it was spread out, at least relatively. Do they give warnings or have they done it without any kind of notice? Wouldn't throttling apply to upload speeds as well? I'm still getting pretty good ones so far.

 

[N4Newbie]

You have either been throttled or you have moved into an area where nothing higher than 2G data is supported.

As to throttling policies, I seen to recall that AT&T and StraightTalk throttle not only based on total usage and usage type, but that the caps depend on your local market and how jammed your local network is at any given moment. In other words, if your local network is running at only 15% capacity you will be given a lot more freedom than if it is running at 92%. StraightTalk's agreements with carriers require them to throttle their customers back whenever the local network is nearing capacity so that the real "paying" customers are not impinged by the low class StraightTalk users.

 

[bobjohnson201]

You have either been throttled or you have moved into an area where nothing higher than 2G data is supported.

As to throttling policies, I seen to recall that AT&T and StraightTalk throttle not only based on total usage and usage type, but that the caps depend on your local market and how jammed your local network is at any given moment. In other words, if your local network is running at only 15% capacity you will be given a lot more freedom than if it is running at 92%. StraightTalk's agreements with carriers require them to throttle their customers back whenever the local network is nearing capacity so that the real "paying" customers are not impinged by the low class StraightTalk users.

i am in the same area where HSPA+21 data is supported, so it looks like I have been throttled. Just did another speed test. Download - 0.29, Upload -2.31. Throttling doesn't affect upload speeds? Also, this has been lasting for a few days now, so I'm assuming it'll be like this for the rest of the month? I didnt even get any kind of warning or notice.

 

[N4Newbie]

My understanding (and reading of their Terms & Conditions) is that StraightTalk does not send notifications. As to how long it will last, I would imagine that if you are being "punished" for overuse, it will last until the start of your next billing period. If your local network is running at or near maximum capacity, it will last until that has resolved itself.

If you were being punished for violation of T&C (such as operating a streaming server), your account would simply have been cancelled.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ckname%3Dstraight.static.terms&token=dc_bz2l-

 

[bobjohnson201]

My understanding (and reading of their Terms & Conditions) is that StraightTalk does not send notifications. As to how long it will last, I would imagine that if you are being "punished" for overuse, it will last until the start of your next billing period. If your local network is running at or near maximum capacity, it will last until that has resolved itself.

If you were being punished for violation of T&C (such as operating a streaming server), your account would simply have been cancelled.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ckname%3Dstraight.static.terms&token=E8tbenA-

but what about upload speeds? why is that unscathed? also, i've heard that people got warning calls when they used "excessive" data

 

[Jeremy8000]

but what about upload speeds? why is that unscathed? also, i've heard that people got warning calls when they used "excessive" data

I can't speak from experience with AT&T or StraightTalk, but with T-mo, when I was throttled a while back, it only impacted download speeds. Upload was unaffected.

 

[dmowry7300]

hmm im not sure about that. this month's cycle ends on jan 5, and ive used a total of 1.73 GB so far, but i think it was spread out, at least relatively. Do they give warnings or have they done it without any kind of notice? Wouldn't throttling apply to upload speeds as well? I'm still getting pretty good ones so far.

Omg... once again another case of ST throttling and less than 2gb used. This is really starting to make me nervous. With the release of the nexus 4 you would think ST would be enjoying all the new business but if they keep throttling people who really aren't ABUSING data they are going to lose a lot of customers.

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[N4Newbie]

From what I can determine, StraightTalk is essentially buying "free capacity" from AT&T, T-Mobile, etc. Their agreements with these cellular operators require that their (StraightTalk's) customers not impinge on the capacity of the contracted networks nor interfere with the networks' "real" (full paying) customers. I believe this is why StraightTalk's throttling policies are so hard to pin down - it's a moment-by-moment, almost tower-by-tower, thing...

 

[bobjohnson201]

From what I can determine, StraightTalk is essentially buying "free capacity" from AT&T, T-Mobile, etc. Their agreements with these cellular operators require that their (StraightTalk's) customers not impinge on the capacity of the contracted networks nor interfere with the networks' "real" (full paying) customers. I believe this is why StraightTalk's throttling policies are so hard to pin down - it's a moment-by-moment, almost tower-by-tower, thing...

so the throttling is very much likely to vary month by month?

- - - Updated - - -

Omg... once again another case of ST throttling and less than 2gb used. This is really starting to make me nervous. With the release of the nexus 4 you would think ST would be enjoying all the new business but if they keep throttling people who really aren't ABUSING data they are going to lose a lot of customers.

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yea i know, especially to a new customer on his first month of service! i guess net10 could be worth looking into, but its same parent company as straight talk so idk..

 

[bobjohnson201]

I can't speak from experience with AT&T or StraightTalk, but with T-mo, when I was throttled a while back, it only impacted download speeds. Upload was unaffected.

ok this makes sense now. did you receive any kind of warnings or notices?

 

[N4Newbie]

so the throttling is very much likely to vary month by month?

If you look through StraightTalk's web site, nowhere do they clearly specify what their throttling policies are. That means they can pretty much do as they please and change as often as they like. Month to month, minute to minute. Who knows?

T-Mobile at least gives you hard numbers - 10MB, 100MB, 2GB, 5GB - depending on the plan you have signed on to...

 

[dmowry7300]

If you look through StraightTalk's web site, nowhere do they clearly specify what their throttling policies are. That means they can pretty much do as they please and change as often as they like. Month to month, minute to minute. Who knows?

T-Mobile at least gives you hard numbers - 10MB, 100MB, 2GB, 5GB - depending on the plan you have signed on to...

Just wish t-mobile had as good of coverage as at&t does.

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[WannaBeYou]

Just wish t-mobile had as good of coverage as at&t does.

If they did, then they would be able to charge as much as at&t does and so they would. There is a reason that these low/lower cost carriers charge less - they can't provide the same quality of services as the companies who charge more can because they don't have the profits to invest in their network to upgrade it as quickly/extensively.

 

[m3lover1]

I was planning on trying out straight talk att to see how the speeds and coverage is compared to T-Mobile prepaid. Currently on the $30 monthly. Now though I'm not so sure if they're gonna be throttling like that...

 

[dmowry7300]

From what I can tell you basically just need to connect to Wi-Fi any chance you get and not stream music or watch YouTube videos. Kind of sucks but then again you aren't locked in or paying insane phone bills.

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[bobjohnson201]

Just wish t-mobile had as good of coverage as at&t does.

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exactly. if t-mobile had as good coverage as att, I probably would've gone with Solavei and get 4GB of data a month.

 

[bobjohnson201]

If they did, then they would be able to charge as much as at&t does and so they would. There is a reason that these low/lower cost carriers charge less - they can't provide the same quality of services as the companies who charge more can because they don't have the profits to invest in their network to upgrade it as quickly/extensively.

Yea that's probably true. Corrected statement would be: I wish t mobile had as good coverage as att in my area. And honestly att's coverage in my area isn't even all that great. Tmobiles, from what I've heard/seen is straight up terrible

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[bobjohnson201]

I was planning on trying out straight talk att to see how the speeds and coverage is compared to T-Mobile prepaid. Currently on the $30 monthly. Now though I'm not so sure if they're gonna be throttling like that...

If you get good tmo coverage in your area and are content with 100 minutes/month I say stick with tmo

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