FFXI - verizon player slow downFollow

Okay this just started yesterday, I play FFXI and have verizon dsl. Now yesterday a friend of mine who also has verizon said he was experiencing these brief moments when the game would slow down and sometime freeze for 10 seconds. Now this seemed to happen randomly while he was out soloing.

Now today I noticed the same exact thing happening to me as I'm out battling or travelling. The game will randomly slow down and freeze for about 10 seconds or so. Now my friend says the freezes have stopped while mine continue to disrupt my gameplay. So I'm wondering if it's a Verizon thing or a bug in the game or something because I can't figure it out.

Has anyone else experienced this?