Netflix Admits to Throttling Video Speeds
Death Wish of Taking a Fall, or Something More Sinister?
In a surprise move , one that will surely send tech watchdogs into a tizzy, Netflix admitted to lowering its bandwidth for select mobile networks in U.S.
This move comes after a week after accusations on mega mobile providers AT&T and Verizon of restricting the quality of Netflix streaming videos. The entertainment company admitted to have been throttling bandwidth for five years — reasoning that it was done to save consumers from exorbitant data charges.
“It’s about striking a balance that ensures a good streaming experience while avoiding unplanned fines from mobile providers”, Anne Marie Squeo, a company spokeswoman, wrote in a blog post.
What comes as a surprise is that, the company was earlier a well known supporter for the cause of Net Neutrality in US.
After the admittance, company has assured the consumer base that it will launch a slew of reforms in May, enabling individuals to customise data packs individually.
Controversy flared up last week when T-Mobile’s CEO, John Legere alleged that Verizon and AT&T were throttling video speeds. The companies denied the accusation.
In a response to a complaint letter sent by Verizon, Netflix replied — “As an ISP, you sell your customers a connection to the Internet,To try to shift blame to us for performance issues arising from interconnection congestion is like blaming drivers on a bridge for traffic jams when you’re the one who decided to leave three lanes closed during rush hour”.
Currently, certain mobile network customers like Verizon and AT&T are restricted to speeds limited to 600 kbps, allowing them access to inferior quality of video content.
Calling the move as an attempt to “strike a balance”, the company has reasoned that unlike in the case of Verizon and AT&T, Netflix does not restrict the video quality for T-Mobile and Sprint users because “historically those two companies have had more consumer-friendly policies”.
As per U.S. federal law regarding Net Neutrality, companies like Netflix are yet exempt from the restrictions of bandwidth. This has allowed them to take a liberal interpretation of the law. One can argue here, that the choice of bandwidth manipulation is being done while keeping the consumer experience in mind — and hence is consumer friendly.
While this might be the case, one can also complain about the certain lack of transparency that has been present in the matter.
This also raises certain question regarding the company’s policy in its new market countries such as India.
While the reach of Netflix in the market is yet subject to scrutiny and analysis, certain telecom surveys have ascertained that a sizeable chunk of internet community is still using laughable internet FUP capped speeds. As per the analysis of the data:
- Less than 1% of the users enjoy a speed greater than 50 Mbps
- Nearly 45% users thrive on connection speed of 1–3 Mbps
- 30% users are still living with connection speed of less than 1 Mbps
- Over 60% users are paying in the range of INR 500–1,000 per month for their connection. In this range the connection speed is essentially 0.5 Mbps to 5 Mbps!
Netflix, in order to gain traction over certain already popular content services like Hotstar, might try to gain a contract with certain companies like Airtel to create fast network lanes. Although this move will be against the usual Net Neutrality stance that both the government and the company has, yet the current internet speeds simply do not suffice.
What concerns us further, is that Netflix will be using the infrastructure of the country as a tool to further its business. In the name of enhanced consumer experience it might serve us a big lie.
We, as consumers, now have the responsibility to be cautious, for half-truths are still a lie.
Originally published at Chip-Monks.
