Why does the operator limit the speed
Surely on some occasion you have tried to open a web page, social networks or any application to make video calls and you see that the connection does not work well. The first thing you look at is the coverage, but sometimes you even see that it is full. What happen? One possibility is that the operator has limited the connection so you have less speed. And yes, this is a possibility and there are different reasons for it.
congested networks
One of the reasons that the operator may limit the speed of the Internet is when there is a heavy network congestion. This is something that can happen on mobile networks as well as on the home Internet. For example, it is common when we are in a place where there are many people, but normally it is not. A specific event such as a concert, a football match, etc. The networks there have limited capacity and there is too much demand at the time.
Something similar happens with the broadband connection. We could see it in the months of confinement due to the pandemic. There were too many users connected at the same time, watching streaming videos and making a lot of use of the Internet and that caused the speed to slow down on certain occasions.
Priorization
This is something that happens especially in some countries when we connect to a virtual mobile operator. What the main one does is prioritize so that its clients, in circumstances in which resources are limited, have access at a higher speed while those who connect to the MVNO may have greater problems.
It can also happen with certain services. For example, a platform to watch series or movies online. If at any given time there are too many users, what they do is prioritize those who have paid a supplement and can thus take more advantage of the resources that are available.
You have exhausted the data
Many mobile Internet operators limit the speed once we pass from the contracted data. For example, if we have 3 GB of mobile data per month and we run out of it, from then on we can continue browsing but the speed will be very limited. Even so limited that sometimes we could not do much more than send messages on WhatsApp.
If this happens to you, you should take a good look at the conditions of the rate you have contracted. The speed at which they are going to limit the connection once the data is exhausted should appear there. It may be worthwhile for you to acquire a higher rate, with more mobile data available to be able to navigate.
Block connection by activity
An Internet operator might also block your connection or limit your speed based on your activity on the network. For example, something common is that they can limit that speed if it detects that you are doing torrent downloads. It is not something that happens in all countries, nor in all operators; but it is an option that is there.
This is so since it could be interpreted that you are downloading illegal content when using this type of application. In this way, what it does is limit the connection so that you cannot download at a high speed.