Sprint to start throttling customers who used over 23 GB of data

Sprint yesterday announced that it would start throttling customers who used over 23 GB of data during their billing cycle, regardless of whether they were on unlimited data plans or not.

The move, according to Sprint chief technology officer Dr John Saw, was intended to provide better customer experience for the majority of its users.

According to the carrier, the 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 added the number was "far more" than most of its customers used in a typical billing cycle.

The change would affect those who opted for an unlimited data handset plan after 16 October  or Sprint customers who choose to upgrade their devices on or after 16 October.

Those who exceed 23 GB would see their data prioritised below other customers, which meant they would encounter slower data speeds, but only in times and locations where the network was constrained.
 
According to Saw, throttling would kick in when the cell tower was congested, which would lead to decreased speeds.

However, according to commentators, 23GB was not a mean amount  especially when one considered that a very small percentage of unlimited data customers actually used that much data in a month.

''Performance for the affected customer returns to normal as soon as traffic on the cell site also returns to normal, or the customer moves to a non-constrained site,'' wrote Saw.

Users living in major cities would experience throttling more, as cell towers tend to get frequently congested, which could annoyance to some data customers.