T-Mobile increases its unlimited plan's throttling limit

The problem with unlimited data plans available virtually anywhere in the world at this time is that, sooner or later, the transfer speeds provided hit a wall due to the "fair usage threshold" applied by all carriers. In the US, T-Mobile users who already enjoyed an industry-leading 32 GB prioritization point are now moving to the next level and receive 50 GB of full-speed mobile data each month.

According to more third-party reports and tests, T-Mobile's 4G LTE network is the fastest in the US. SpeedTest's data reveals that, compared to the previous year, the carrier's network is now 25 percent faster. As a side note, T-Mobile claims that its 4G LTE network averaged over 30 Mbps this week.

The 50 GB of LTE data now available allow T-Mobile customers to enjoy around 30 SD movies on Netflix each month without reaching the throttling limit. In fact, 2 hours of daily Netflix streaming would use around 42 GB per month. On the other hand, AT&T and Verizon Wireless customers hit the limit at only 22 GB.

T-Mobile describes prioritization as being different from throttling. According to the Un-carrier, "When T-Mobile customers who use the most data hit these prioritization points during the month, they get in line behind other customers who have used less data and may experience reduced speeds." This means that, if the load of the wireless network in the area allows it, the users who already hit the prioritization limit might still enjoy high-speed data connectivity.

Verizon has recently decided to disconnect from its network around 8,500 customers who used an unusually large amount of data. Since these customers live in areas outside the carrier's network, keeping them connected is not profitable due to the high roaming costs Verizon must support, so the carrier has chosen to drop them.

For the time being, T-Mobile is also busy "rolling out 5G ready stuff" and plans to offer 5G connectivity to its clients in 2020. Until that happens, increasing the prioritization/throttling limit that is already the most generous one in the US looks like another step in the right direction.