After announcing back in February that it would reserve the right to throttle top smartphone data users, Verizon has put the policy into effect. The top 5 percent of data users on unlimited 3G data plans who are in what Verizon calls “congested cell sites” will now face slowdowns that last longer than a month.

Droid Life reports that those who pay for tiered data packages or are on the 4G LTE network won’t suffer the throttling. Verizon doesn’t offer unlimited data to newcomers, but at this point still allows older customers who signed up for the package when it still existed to keep it.

When Verizon identifies unlimited 3G customers have passed the acceptable threshold, it slows download speeds for the remainder of the billing cycle, as well as the entire next cycle. Here’s Verizon’s FAQ page on the matter.

As of Yesterday Verizon Started Throttling its Top 5% Data Hogs, Doesn’t Affect 4G LTE or Tiered Data Customers [Droid Life via Engadget]

Previously: Ahead Of iPhone, Verizon Says It May Start Throttling Top 5% Of Data Users

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