powercat_ras

This is normal. This is not technically "throttled" as term is used in the cellular industry. This is bandwidth prioritization. Yes. We all see it. What it means is that when there is capacity in the tower and network, we get great speeds. When the congestion hits (for many around even commute time), the full-paying-through-the-nose customers will still get full speed up until that capacity is maxed. We will get deprioritized and slower speeds....sorta last come, last serve on the network. This is the tradeoff with this configuration. To get unlimited data with no prioritization, you need to pay a LOT more with another service. It is hit or miss, different for different locations. Some places you travel to will be blazing. Others not. The speed difference between phone tethered and wifi could be the USB capacity or other settings. I can get 48 through the tethered at times.