Verizon will disconnect its heaviest 'unlimited' data users

There's a limit to "unlimited," it turns out. Verizon Wireless customers who still have unlimited data plans and who regularly go over 100GB per month will be forced to switch to limited data plans or get kicked off the network on August 31st, Ars Technica reports. Any Verizon customers who rely on their phones to stream entire seasons of Game of Thrones, or are trying to download the entire Library of Congress to their devices, will soon be getting notifications from Verizon that they've been flagged as an "extraordinary" data user.

As Verizon explained in a statement, those users truly are extraordinary: "These users are using data amounts well in excess of our largest plan size (100GB). While the Verizon Plan at 100GB is designed to be shared across multiple users, each line receiving notification to move to the new Verizon Plan is using well in excess of that on a single device."

Verizon stopped offering the unlimited plans in 2011, but there are still a few people grandfathered in to old plans who haven't made the switch. Any of these "extraordinary" users who don't voluntarily change plans will find their line dead on September first, but will have 50 days to reactivate their accounts. In the past, Verizon has come under fire from the FCC for throttling its "unlimited" data plans, but in this case about 99 percent of Verizon's Wireless customers have already agreed to data caps, so it's unlikely there will be much resistance to Big Red this time.