50 Gigs per Month, Really vs Tokens

[roloc1]

Hello,

Hope everyone is doing well during the crisis.

We have been using quite a bit of data during the COVID-19 crisis. With 3 days remaining this billing cycle, we showed 4% remaining on our account using the phone app and 2.1% using my lap top (not sure why there was a difference, probably some latency or processing delays). My wife said her computer started downloading sluggishly earlier today. I ran a speed test, and it took about 8 tries before it actually ran without a network error), and it showed our download speed was less than 1 MBPS). We tried using ZOOM tonight, and it just would not run properly, so I decided to purchase a 25 Gig token at $75. The internet speed increased immediately, over 40 MBPS and ZOOM started working. 

My question is, if we still have data remaining on our acc ount, why was our download speed throttled back, forcing me to purchase a token? Proof that we did not really need the token, when I checked my account a few moments ago, the token has not been touched. 

Thanks much, stay safe and stay blessed.

[GabeU]

@roloc1 

Though odd, no doubt, it was almost assuredly nothing more than an ironic coincidence.  Token data is only used when you've exhausted your plan data.  So even if you buy one, it won't be touched unless and until your plan data is exhausted.  

Your speed issues were very likely due to congestion in the system, and what probably happened is that the load on the system lightened up a bit right around the time you purchased the data token.  It's also possible that your modem automatically changed your beam channel, which they can do.  This is one of the reasons why power cycling or rebooting the modem can sometimes help to improve service speed, as it has a tendency to change to a "cleaner" channel.  Cleaner at the time, that is, as the load levels on those channels dynamically change, so the speed improvement can vary over time.