Verizon Throttles Fire Department Data

[Lurick]

Summary: So, while emergency services were busy fighting the raging fires in California, Verizon appeared to be busy worried about their bottom line and that fact is crystal clear after they were informed the throttling was impacting emergency services and they did nothing about it. Verizon decided they needed to pay extra because the "unlimited" data they thought was being paid for wasn't true "unlimited" and in the end suggested they go to a $99.99/month plan that allows for 20GB and then $8/GB for all data that point.

Quote

"County Fire has experienced throttling by its ISP, Verizon," Santa Clara County Fire Chief Anthony Bowden wrote in a declaration. "This throttling has had a significant impact on our ability to provide emergency services. Verizon imposed these limitations despite being informed that throttling was actively impeding County Fire's ability to provide crisis-response and essential emergency services."

 

Seriously Verizon?! Who the hell thought this was going to go over without anyone saying something. People are trying to contain a massive wildfire and all they can concern themselves with is getting the department to pay more (more than doubled their bill) to effectively work and contain this fire. The throttling was so bad that they emergency command vehicle was basically unusable and unable to do the job effectively.

 

Link: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/08/verizon-throttled-fire-departments-unlimited-data-during-calif-wildfire/

[bcredeur97]

of course they don't care. they just want money. all of the money. all the time.

 

 

that's all anyone wants. make people need you and then charge them out the wazoo for it.

[Crunchy Dragon]

That's a really big jerk move.

 

Not much else to say, honestly it's a little sickening.

[GoodBytes]

I don't know.. I am not in the States, so I would like to get input on what I am saying, but checking out providers for cellphones in the US, they make it pretty clear that "unlimited" is really unlimited internet access, not speed... what I mea. is that: It usually says something like: "<capacity> GB is on LTE, than after that it is on <insert lower network speed>"

 

So a subscriber knows what they sign up for. Some people prefer this model over paying a high fee per GB that they pass over, just to get the full speed all the time. You can pick providers/plans with more "unlimited" data on higher speed, from what I can see. In the case of Verizon, I see you have 22GB and 75GB options on LTE, past those, the speed is no longer guaranteed.

 

And how does Verison knows that these are firefighters... what, like you call "yes.. I am a firefighter... yyyyeeaaaa that is what I am.... give me unlimited full speed now forever!", come on.

[DrMacintosh]

Hey Verizon, step off my states heroes! 

[ivan134]

Lies. I was told corporations always do the right thing because their bottom line depends on it

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Soooo ... basically Verizon's actions helped spread the fire.  Guess they should help pay for the damages then. 

[Drak3]

I'm on the fence about this.

 

Treating firefighters this way is a big no no.

 

But on the other hand, California.

[ivan134]

Just now, Drak3 said:

I'm on the fence about this.

 

Treating firefighters this way is a big no no.

 

But on the other hand, California.

What? 

[Razor Blade]

Hard to say but I don't think it is as simple as a customer service rep to say "oh okay" and push a button to make things all better. Verizon is a really large company. Even request escalations take time to process. Upsells are something a customer service rep can do with a single "yes"

[Drak3]

Just now, ivan134 said:

What? 

1. Joke.
2. The fire being out if control is what happens when we prevent natural forest fires from clearing out dead brush.
3. I don't like the state's legistlator or the large cities there.

[ivan134]

3 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

1. Joke.
2. The fire being out if control is what happens when we prevent natural forest fires from clearing out dead brush.
3. I don't like the state's legistlator or the large cities there.

Oooooh. Ahahahaha. Don't like someone there so they should burn. Ahahahaha.

[asus killer]

6 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

1. Joke.
2. The fire being out if control is what happens when we prevent natural forest fires from clearing out dead brush.

come on dude, what the hell. Natural forest fires don't clear dead brush, how do you thing fires work? fires clear everything. And joking about this sweet lord are you a robot? another failed AI experiment from Microsoft?

[Drak3]

9 minutes ago, asus killer said:

And joking about this sweet lord are you a robot?

Either nothing is off limits or everything is.

9 minutes ago, asus killer said:

Natural forest fires don't clear dead brush, how do you thing fires work?

Excessive accumilation of dead brush is what causes forest fires of this magnitude to happen. Regularly occuring, dead brush doesn't accumilate nearly as much, because it is cleared out by said fires. No where did I say that dead brush was the only thing cleared out.

[asus killer]

5 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Either nothing is off limits or everything is.

Excessive accumilation of dead brush is what causes forest fires of this magnitude to happen. Regularly occuring, dead brush doesn't accumilate nearly as much, because it is cleared out by said fires. No where did I say that dead brush was the only thing cleared out.

i must assume you have no idea how California weather and drought impacts fires and give you a huge discount on suggesting allowing natural fires to run it's course there.

[Dionyz]

3 minutes ago, asus killer said:

i must assume you have no idea how California weather and drought impacts fires and give you a huge discount on suggesting allowing natural fires to run it's course there.

Most people don't know that fires are actually good for the environment.... Look it up.

[ScratchCat]

Reports say the fire department suddenly received truly unlimited data as the fire swept towards the Verizon headquarters

[Razor Blade]

Natural fires are a thing... but combustible man made structures mean that they have to be contained. 

 

Being that the density of trees is actually up, combined with droughts and more sources of ignition (people) it is a real problem...

[Lurick]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the Carr fire considered arson?

I know there have been a few though recently and I don't think the department in question was battling that fire.

[Thaldor]

There's just so much that if I put everything short, just "What?".

 

99,99$ for really unlimited data. Like, do you guys, there in the States, have something like golden backbone and platinum plated base stations? That is something like 5-times the cost of my unlimited 100Mbit/s (tested to 1TB in month without throttling), unlimited calls and texts phone plan (in Finland and baltic countries, in other Europe I only have 10GB of data to use at 100Mbit/s, 20€/month) and I'm pretty sure fire departments and similar get huge discounts just for the volumes.

 

Also fire department not making sure they have the correct data plan is kind of odd. Not trying to shift the blame, but would have thought that when they were getting that important system, they would have gone through the contracts with magnifying glasses with lawers just to be sure there isn't this kind of s**t.

 

Also Verizon 110% surely knew where that one data plan was put and extremely well knew in what kind of situation it is at the moment and when the contact came about the problem, there should have happened something more than just a rip off for more money.

[Jito463]

41 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

I don't know.. I am in the states but checking out providers for cellphone they make it pretty clear that "unlimited" is really unlimited internet access.

It usually says something like: "<capacity> GB is on LTE, than after that it is on <insert lower network speed>"

So a subscriber knows what they sign up for. Some people prefer this model over paying a high fee per GB that they pass over, just to get the full speed all the time. You can pick providers with more "unlimited" data on higher speed, from what I can see. In the case of Verizon, I see you have 22GB and 75GB options on LTE.

While I can understand the angst against Verizon, I don't see them as entirely at fault.  While I do agree that it would be in their best interests to allow higher data transmissions in event of emergencies (such as a wild fire), the fire department had to know what their limits were on the plan, especially since it has apparently happened before:

Quote

Verizon throttling also affected the department in a response to previous fires in December and June, emails show.

Given that, I find it hard to put all the blame on Verizon.  Some if it must fall on the fire department for failing to be proactive about their needs.

[Lurick]

1 minute ago, Thaldor said:

99,99$ for really unlimited data. Like, do you guys, there in the States, have something like golden backbone and platinum plated base stations? That is something like 5-times the cost of my unlimited 100Mbit/s (tested to 1TB in month without throttling), unlimited calls and texts phone plan (in Finland and baltic countries, in other Europe I only have 10GB of data to use at 100Mbit/s, 20€/month) and I'm pretty sure fire departments and similar get huge discounts just for the volumes.

Correction, $99.99 for 20GB of data plus $8 per GB over that

[Dabombinable]

27 minutes ago, asus killer said:

come on dude, what the hell. Natural forest fires don't clear dead brush, how do you thing fires work? fires clear everything. And joking about this sweet lord are you a robot? another failed AI experiment from Microsoft?

They do in Australia, and the same would have applied to California in the past. Hell, over here there are a lot of plants and trees adapted to withstand fires, and some can't even germinate without having been through one.

[Lurick]

1 minute ago, Jito463 said:

While I can understand the angst against Verizon, I don't see them as entirely at fault.  While I do agree that it would be in their best interests to allow higher data transmissions in event of emergencies (such as a wild fire), the fire department had to know what their limits were on the plan, especially since it has apparently happened before:

Given that, I find it hard to put all the blame on Verizon.  Some if it must fall on the fire department for failing to be proactive about their needs.

I do agree to an extent that the should have checked to make sure it was unlimited but this quote makes me think they believed the problem was resolved:

 

Quote

Verizon is currently throttling OES 5262 so severely that it's hampering operations for the assigned crew. This is not the first time we have had this issue. In December of 2017 while deployed to the Prado Mobilization Center supporting a series of large wildfires, we had the same device with the same SIM card also throttled. I was able to work through [Fire Department IT executive] Eric Prosser at the time to have service to the device restored, and Eric communicated that Verizon had properly re-categorized the device as truly "unlimited".

 

[Nowak]

I don't know why, for the life of me, you'd want to throttle a fire department as they actively fight a fire that's actively threatening peoples' lives, but apparently making a profit is more important to Verizon than allowing a fire department to do its thing and protect people from wildfires.