Verizon will slow connections for heavy data users

Given its unlimited data plan for both new and current customers, the Verizon iPhone was looking like the better bet for fans of Apple's smart phone who plan to live on their phones, downloading frequently and heavily. That advantage for data hogs is less clear now: Verizon has announced it will slow connections for heavy users on unlimited plans whose data demands are affecting other customers on the network.

Verizon unveiled the policy yesterday, Feb. 3, as millions of its customers were preordering the company's version of the iPhone 4 (including Consumer Reports; we ordered both a 32GB and 16GB iPhone for testing, before Verizon called a halt to preorders).

The only data plan offered for the Verizon iPhone will be a $29.99 unlimited plan. By contrast, AT&T offers tiered plans at $15 (for up to 200MB a month) and $25 (2GB a month), along with an unlimited data plan that's available only to grandfathered customers who had the plan before AT&T discontinued it for new customers.

The company warned that specifically for its customers who rank in the top 5 percent of data users, "We may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically" for the remainder of a customer's current billing cycle and for the one that follows.

A similar "throttling" policy is also in place at T-Mobile, as the Wall Street Journal points out in a handy chart today. Such curbs essentially serve as a way for carriers to deliver technically on their promise to provide unlimited data at a set price, while practically limiting the amount of data used by slowing the connection.

Most smart-phone owners use low to moderate amounts of data, so for them, the curbs likely aren't an issue. And it remains to be seen how much impact the policy will actually have on the heaviest downloaders among the millions of new Verizon iPhone owners.

But the throttling plan at least raises the possibility that the data-hog crowd might be better off with an AT&T iPhone, with a plan at the 2GB level, which is a fairly hefty helping of data. That's especially the case given some anecdotal reports from early reviewers that data connections from AT&T iPhones were faster than those from their Verizon counterpart in informal testing—and those took place before data curbs were in place.

—Paul Reynolds