Sprint is updating its policy to limit the connection speeds of high-bandwidth subscribers it believes is abusing the service,
within weeks of revealing it is increasing the cost of unlimited data plans. A new Quality of Service (QoS) practice will now apply to unlimited data plans, throttling the connection of customers using more than 23GB of data on their devices in a month, though only in cases where the network in a market is congested.
According to a
blog post from Sprint CTO John Saw, customers setting up a new line or upgrading their handset on or after October 16 will be subject to the new QoS policy, with other customers remaining unaffected. Under the QoS plan, those exceeding 23GB in the billing cycle will find their connection given a lower prioritization on the network for the remainder of the period, but only "in times and locations where the network is constrained." Despite reaching this limit, the customers will not be subjected to any excess data charges, only throttling.
"This QoS Practice is intended to protect against a small minority of unlimited customers who use high volumes of data and unreasonably take-up network resources during times when the network is constrained," writes Saw. "It is important to note that this QoS technique operates in real-time and only applies if a cell site is constrained. Prioritization is applied or removed every 20 milliseconds."
Saw claims the new policy will only affect a small number of customers, with approximately three percent of postpaid subscribers said to be "using overwhelmingly disproportionate network resources."
Last year,
Sprint advised it would be performing some throttling of customer connections in a similar way to the most recent announcement, with the top five percent of data users being targeted and a suggestion that those using more than 5GB in a month would be the most likely candidates for throttling. Despite the announcement, Sprint decided not to introduce throttling at that time, possibly because of feedback from customers.
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