• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 1, 2014

Verizon Wireless has backed away from a controversial plan to throttle some of its longtime subscribers who are still on unlimited data plans.

“We’ve greatly valued the ongoing dialogue over the past several months concerning network optimization, and we’ve decided not to move forward with the planned implementation of network optimization for 4G LTE customers on unlimited plans,” the company said in a statement given to Droid-Life on Wednesday afternoon.

The throttling plan, which was slated to begin on Wednesday, called for Verizon to subject some 4G LTE users on unlimited plans to the “network optimization policy.” That policy involves slowing down heavy data users -- defined by Verizon as people who use more data than 95% of other subscribers -- when they are “connected to cell sites experiencing heavy demand.”

Verizon said this summer that those consumers “may experience slower data speeds when using certain high bandwidth applications, such as streaming high-definition video or during real-time online gaming.”

News of Verizon's plan drew a rebuke from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler. “I know of no past Commission statement that would treat as 'reasonable network management' a decision to slow traffic to a user who has paid, after all, for 'unlimited' service,” he wrote to Verizon in July.

At the time, the wireless company replied that its practices were in line with those of other carriers.