Sprint Will Start Throttling Customers That Use More Than 23 GB a Month

Friday October 16, 2015 7:50 PM PDT by Husain Sumra
Sprint today announced that they would begin throttling customers who used more than 23 GB of data during their billing cycle, regardless of whether they had unlimited data plans or not. The move, according to Sprint Chief Technology Officer Dr. John Saw, is to provide a better customer experience for the majority of their users.sprint_logo
The 23GB threshold is typical in the industry and other carriers have already implemented a similar practice. We agree this is a smart approach towards making sure a small number of customers don’t adversely impact the experience for others. Today approximately three percent of our postpaid subscribers are using overwhelmingly disproportionate network resources. Our goal with QoS is to prevent some portion of that three percent going forward from negatively impacting the other 97 percent of customers.
The carrier notes that 23 GB of data would allow a user to send 6,000 emails with attachments, view 1,500 web pages, post 600 photos to social media, stream 60 hours of music and stream 50 hours of video. Sprint also says that number is "far more" than most of its customers use in a typical billing cycle.

The change will affect those who choose an unlimited data handset plan after October 16 or to Sprint customers who choose to upgrade their devices on or after October 16. Those who go over 23 GB will see their data prioritized below other customers, which means they will encounter slower data speeds, but only in times and locations where the network is constrained.

This summer, T-Mobile also decided to update their plans to throttle customers. However, T-Mobile's soft data cap is 21 GB, slightly less than Sprint's choice. T-Mobile also announced that it would restrict customers who abused data tethering, saying some of its customers use up to 2,000 GB a month.

Tag: Sprint
147 comments


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farewelwilliams
37 months ago
Rating: 51 Votes
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destroyboredom
37 months ago
If you can actually use more than 23GB on that network you deserve a trophy not to be throttled.
Rating: 38 Votes
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HiRez
37 months ago
These companies should be fined or sued or both for continually lying about what customers are really getting. Just about every one of these guys has been caught lying with regard to "unlimited" plans. If it's not 100% unlimited, you shouldn't be allowed to call it that, period.
Rating: 29 Votes
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furi0usbee
37 months ago
It's funny how carriers get mad when people use, well, unlimited amounts of their unlimited data plans... never will understand that one.
Rating: 26 Votes
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ajstratton
37 months ago
as if sprint couldn't be any slower.
Rating: 19 Votes
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farewelwilliams
37 months ago

Yeah! How dare Sprint go back on a 4 (or more) year old ad!

two year old ad:
Rating: 18 Votes
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Jeremy1026
37 months ago


Yeah! How dare Sprint go back on a 4 (or more) year old ad!
Rating: 11 Votes
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Rafagon
37 months ago

It's insane how much data people use every month... My usage never tops 500 MB :D

You get a cookie!
Rating: 8 Votes
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live.cn
37 months ago
At first I was wondering how come 23GB can only upload 600 photos or view 1500 web pages. But then I realized this:

23,000,000 / (3600 * 24 * 30) = 8.87 Kbps

That, makes sense.
Rating: 7 Votes
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iLoveiTunes
37 months ago
It's insane how much data people use every month... My usage never tops 500 MB :D
Rating: 5 Votes
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