Verizon Unlimited Plans: Carrier Disconnects Heavy Data Users In Rural Areas

Verizon has taken to removing the heaviest data users in rural areas from its network despite those customers being subscribed to unlimited data plans.

According to some Verizon customers, the largest carrier in the United States has been removing users for excessive data usage from its LTEiRA program—a service under which a number of small, regional carriers have partnered with the massive network to provide coverage to rural areas.

Read: Verizon Unlimited Data Plans: Carrier Threatens To Disconnect Customers Using More Than 200GB Of Data Per Month

Users on Howard Forums, a popular online destination for discussion about mobile services, have complained about accounts with unlimited data plans offered through the LTEiRA program being shut down.

According to posters on the forum, there is little to no difference between Verizon’s nationwide service and the LTEiRA service provided through 21 different regional carriers across the country. Verizon provides technology and spectrum rights to those carriers in return for allowing Verizon customers to use those regional networks free of charge.

No version of Verizon’s unlimited data plan offers truly unlimited data; subscribers going directly through Verizon are warned their data may be “prioritized” after 22GB of usage—which is to say, connections will be throttled or slowed once users reach a soft cap.

However, on the LTEiRA program, Verizon appears to have less control in enforcing that limitation. So instead of throttling users, it’s simply removing them entirely.

According to one poster on the Howard Forums, “They’re calling those with billing addresses outside of their coverage areas on unlimited and agreeing to pay off their phones if they will port out, otherwise they will discontinue the service.”

Read: Verizon Wireless Unlimited Data Plan Launched Amid Competition From T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T

In a statement to BGR, Verizon confirmed the reports from subscribers on the Howard Forums that it is terminating the contracts of customers outside its standard service areas who are heavy data users.

“We are notifying a small group of customers who are out of contract and primarily use mobile data on other networks that we will no longer provide service to them after July 30, 2017,” Verizon Director of Corporate Communications Kelly Crummey told BGR.

It’s not the first crackdown Verizon has applied to customers who believed they were signing up for unlimited data from the carrier.

Earlier this year, customers began reporting that the telecommunications company was purging users from its network who were using more than 200GB of data. The small percentage of users who were guilty of such high usage rates were pushed to different subscription plans or disconnected from the network entirely.

In the summer of 2016, the company also cracked down on high data users who signed up for unlimited data plans, removing subscribers who used more than 500GB of data per month.