Bandwidth Throttling is where something sets a restriction on the pipe, they make it smaller for some purpose – so even though your pipe is nice and wide, now only a trickle of water flows because someone narrowed the pipe somewhere.
It’s the intended slowing of Internet speed by the ISP (Internet service provider). It is a reactive action used in communication networks to manage network traffic and reduce bandwidth usage.
Bandwidth throttling can happen at different positions on the network. On a local area network (LAN), the system admin may apply bandwidth throttling to help reduce network crowding and server crashes. The Internet service provider may use bandwidth throttling to help decrease a user’s usage of bandwidth that is provided to the local network.
If you feel that your internet service provider is restricting your bandwidth because you have been reaching a monthly threshold, an Internet speed test done many times throughout the month might shed light on that. If your bandwidth suddenly becomes so slow near the end of the month then a throttling might be happening.
VPN services can be helpful to avoid bandwidth throttling from the ISP. VPN services hide and encrypt the traffic that’s flowing between your network at home and the rest of the Internet.