Verizon to big data users: Please stop

Verizon Wireless is sending out unusual emails to some of its most voracious users: Please stop.

The company confirmed in a statement Friday that it is reaching out to a limited number of customers who use an “extraordinary” amount of data, informing them that they must switch to a tiered plan by Aug. 31 or their accounts will be suspended. If that happens, customers will have 50 days to reactivate their accounts under a tiered plan. If they don’t, their accounts will be terminated.

Verizon is taking the action “because our network is a shared resource, and we need to ensure all customers have a great mobile experience with Verizon,” the statement said.

The decision seems to be aimed at customers who have held on to an unlimited data plan that the telecom giant no longer offers and are using that plan to the fullest. According to Verizon, not many people are affected by the switch, but there are enough to prompt the company to make this unusual move. Verizon’s largest data plan on offer is the 100 GB — designed to be a shared plan — which costs $450 a month. Customers receiving the warnings are using more than that on a single device.

“Currently less than 1 percent of our customers are on unlimited data plans; a small fraction of a percentage of those customers are using extraordinary amounts of data,” the telecom giant said in the statement.

The company also said that it’s sending the notifications only to customers whose contracts are up. “The users receiving notifications have completed the terms of their contracts and are using data amounts hundreds of times more than the average user,” the statement said.

Using Verizon’s data calculator, an hour of streaming 4G video per day accounts for 10 GB of data use. So streaming 10 hours a day is an example of what it would take to hit 100 GB.

Verizon and other networks have been moving away from unlimited plans for years.