Unlimited data plans are killing 4G speeds in the US
4G speeds are slowing down for many people in the US as unlimited data plans become more prevalent. OpenSignal has just published its latest report into the state of mobile networks in the US, and for many people it is bleak reading.
Unlimited data plans have been rolled out by AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon now. While networks that have supplied such packages for a while (T-Mobile and Sprint) have managed to increase the speed of 4G connections for customers, speeds have dropped for AT&T and Verizon users just six months after the introduction of unlimited plans.
OpenSignal's report looks at the period April 1 to June 30, 2017 and it found that 4G speeds for both Verizon and AT&T dropped dramatically. Download tests show that speeds have dropped by 2Mbps to 14.9 Mbps since the last report and since unlimited plans were reintroduced by Verizon.
It's a similar story for AT&T customers. Their speeds have dropped by 1Mbps to just 12.9Mbps. T-Mobile came out on top with average LTE download speeds of 17.5Mbps and overall speeds of 16.1Mbps.
OpenSignal says:
What's causing this fall-off in experienced speeds? The answer is most likely congestion. Cellular networks are shared networks, meaning individual connection speeds are dictated by the total amount of demand for data at a particular cell site. If that demand increases -- either through more customers or more data usage from existing customers -- then average connection speed for all users starts dropping. We may well see this trend continue as more Verizon and AT&T customers take advantage of these new unlimited plans.
You can check out the full report over on the OpenSignal website.
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