Network management

[aep600]

I'm on an unlimited unthrottled Verizon plan from 2009. In the morning I get 50Mbps down, but later in the day I only get 5-15Mbps down. Is this due to network management throttling? What would cause this?

[JimHelms]

Most likely due to tower congestion.

[aep600]

So "unthrottled" has no effect in this scenario?

[JimHelms]

No, they are two different concepts.

Tower congestion occurs when the tower is congested with too many users which generally happens during prime time hours.

There is another variable that comes into play known as deprioritization after using a set threshold of data (i.e., 22GB, 50GB....). This means those who have not hit their monthly threshold gets priority over the data. But this should not be confused with being throttled.

There are exceptions to the above in that some data only plans may be first priority plans but they are rare these days.

If you check your speeds at 3AM you will most likely find they are excellent since there will be very few users competing for network resources at that time.

[aep600]

Thanks for your response. So a "first priority" plan would not have reduced speeds in the event of tower congestion, and others succumb to network management throttling?

[JimHelms]

Throttling is a different animal than deprioritizing.

A good example of throttling is if you have 5GB of hotspot allowance and when that is used up, you are throttled for the rest of the month. Speeds then drop to nothing and stay there unit the next month billing cycle.

You may do a good search to better help understand the difference. You might start with THIS one.

[BillA]

Thanks for your response. So a "first priority" plan would not have reduced speeds in the event of tower congestion, and others succumb to network management throttling?

Also, some carriers "throttle/limit" your speed to a set level (ex. 5Mpbs speed) at all times throughout the entire month even if you have totally unlimited data. An example of such carriers are Visible ("Mobile hotspot speeds capped at 5 Mbps and limited to one tethered device at a time"), GoSmart (limits your data speed to 3G at all times), H2O Unlimited ("Download speeds max of 8Mpbs (LTE)/4Mbps (4G). Videos stream at DVD Quality (480p)."), Tmobile/SimpleMobile (limits most video streams like YouTube to 480p, while other data after 40GB/month may get de-prioritized), and many others. Most of the hotspot limitations can be bypassed using the proper TTL settings, while others are hard limits like the total monthly data allowance of a plan.
From experience, the cheaper/cheesier the plan or carrier is, the more restrictions/limits/throttling there are.

[gscheb]

I understand all the terminology and what it means. Due have a question about congestion and deprioritization though. How it actually works against your speeds. Is it a percentage of loss or a set loss when this happens?
Saying you got a system and your max speed is 50 Mbps then during this time is slows to 35 Mbps.
Now that was a loss of 30%.
Now you do some work on your system get it running better and now have max speeds of 100 Mbps. When you get slowed down this time do you loose 30% and get 70 Mbps or will you still drop down to 35 Mbps anyway during peak times?

[BillA]

I understand all the terminology and what it means. Due have a question about congestion and deprioritization though. How it actually works against your speeds. Is it a percentage of loss or a set loss when this happens?
Saying you got a system and your max speed is 50 Mbps then during this time is slows to 35 Mbps.
Now that was a loss of 30%.
Now you do some work on your system get it running better and now have max speeds of 100 Mbps. When you get slowed down this time do you loose 30% and get 70 Mbps or will you still drop down to 35 Mbps anyway during peak times?

From what I've read and experienced, carriers adjust traffic in real time dynamically, meaning as a particular tower gets more congested, they will deprioritize the lowest priority MVNO/reseller devices and hotspots. Next the main carrier's prepaid devices, then postpaid customers. And last, the main carrier's contract and business customers (aka "cash cows"). While some of us "peasants" are perfectly happy at the bottom of this food-chain, as long as it's cheap. lol

Here's an interesting explanation about speeds on different bands, I've read on OpenSignal.
"A key reason why users connecting on higher frequency spectrum bands enjoy higher average speeds is that on higher bands there are wider channels, which allow for more data to be transmitted simultaneously. There’s simply more spectrum available at higher bands which is why it is so attractive to wireless operators despite its shorter reach and worse signal propagation inside buildings, meaning that operators have to deploy a greater number of costly cell towers."

And here's a graph supporting the above statement (measurements taken in 2019 on the four major US carriers, categorized from low to high frequencies).