H2o Wireless’s Shady Throttling Policy

By Nick Morbidelli  | 30 Mar 2013   | Rants & Opinions

If you have been following us for a while, you might have watched our review of H2o Wireless. In the video, I promoted H2o Wireless as the best AT&T MVNO currently available. Although H2o appeared to be the best choice at the time, after a full month with them, I can no longer recommend their $60 plan. For the first ten days, service and speed were amazing. I could call them almost anytime for support, or even use their online chat system. Data speeds were great…at first. At about ten days in, after I had used about 500MB, data speeds dropped from roughly 6000kbps down, 1000kbps up, to 110kbps both up and down. At first, I thought it was just network congestion. After a few days of slow data,  I contacted customer service and they informed me of their secret throttling policy. After 500MB has been used, they throttling the remaining 1.5GB to 110kbps.

 

That annoyed me. I can understand carriers throttling old unlimited plans, but I had paid for 2GB of high speed data. Nowhere on the site could I find anything about throttling. It’s one thing to  have an established throttling rule, but it’s another thing entirely to throttle without alerting the consumer. What did I do? After suffering through the rest of the month with 2G data, I switched carriers. Mind you, I was out of state for several days, and for much of the time, my smartphone was my only internet connection.  So, who did I switch to? Red Pocket Wireless, another AT&T MVNO. They offer unlimited minutes and texts plus 2GB of data for $60, just like H2o. I researched Red Pocket for several hours, and as I far as I can tell, they don’t throttle.

 

If they do throttle, I’m out of luck. I use about 1.5-2GB of data a month, and my location necessitates coverage that only AT&T offers. H2o and Red Pocket are the only AT&T MVNOs that offer a plan with 2GB of data for a reasonable price. If they don’t throttle, I’ll post an update and video review, so keep an eye on our YouTube channel. 

About Nick Morbidelli

Nicholas is a business major student who loves everything Android. Aside from smartphones, his hobbies consist of debate, ultimate frisbee, and sleeping.

  • http://unlwireless.com Josh Montgomery

    Nick,

    We are a large dealer for H2o and I have ran into the same problem. We sell both RP and H2O, but primarily just H2o in the last year given the 2GB data vs 1GB data that RP was offering. The massive throttling started around last month and now we have a WHOLE bunch of 100k customers that are pissed and rightfully so. I’m really interested to see how the RP $60 plan is working out for you. I just got off the phone with the VP of Red Pocket and he explained that the $55 1GB plan has ZERO throttling, but the $60 2GB plan has “3 stage” throttling. If you can, email me back at . Thanks

  • PrepaidBoy

    Nick,

    I have used both H2O and Red Pocket and both throttled me down to 60kbps to 110kbps and I was ready to pull my hair out. I SOLVED MY PROBLEM BY SWITCHING TO NET10!!! They haven’t throttled me yet and I’ve been using them for 9 months now with my iPhone. I use close to 1.5gb per month. Their At&t data limit is 1.5gb for $50/month which has been working out ok for me even though I do come close almost every month. I think it also matters how much data you use per day on all these companies like if you use 600mb in one day and that might trigger the throttle switch in their computers also. Hope that helps.

    • Josh Montgomery

      Net10 is throwaway, but I am happy to report little to no throttling on Red Pockets new plans. I wish I could say the same for H2o…they appear to have gotten worse. Red Pockets speeds remained at low 4g speeds (5mb down) throughout the 2GB of usage. This has been tested on over 100 active RP accounts.