Netflix has recently begun paying both Comcast and Verizon to improve network performance and carry its video streams at higher bandwidths, but so far only Comcast has reciprocated with better service. Not only has Verizon’s performance become dramatically worse, the company has continued to try and foist the blame for the problem on Netflix, claiming that the online streaming giant is deliberately degrading performance by attempting to stuff data down specific congested Verizon pipes.

Unfortunately, a growing body of evidence suggests this isn’t true. Verizon claims that Netflix “chose to attempt to deliver that traffic to Verizon through a few third-party transit providers with limited capacity over connections specifically to be used only for balanced traffic flows.” Yesterday, backbone provider Level 3 posted a response to Verizon’s claims, noting that in Los Angeles, the peering between Verizon and Level 3 is literally accomplished by connecting four 10 GigE ports between a pair of routers. What does that connection look like?

Why, it looks like that. Note that there are four 10 GigE ports sitting unused on the Verizon side.

But the Verizon diagram, shown below, shows more than just plenty of unused capacity on Verizon’s network — it also shows that the bandwidth providers Netflix doesn’t use have plenty of extra bandwidth. Verizon tries to claim this is because Netflix has chosen not to spread the load, but given that the company built its own CDN (content delivery network), that doesn’t wash. What Level 3’s response makes clear is that Verizon is preferentially refusing to enable the links that would allow for better service quality, despite being paid to do so.

Frustrated FiOS customer installs VPN, sees performance surge

One Verizon customer paying for 75Mbps FiOS became frustrated and switched to a VPN provider to test whether or not the problem was on Verizon’s end. The result? A colossal surge in overall performance delivered courtesy of adding further network overhead.

As the author notes, his initial performance using FiOS to stream Netflix without the VPN was 375Kbps. When he switched to a VPN, his performance jumped from 375Kbps to 3000Kbps — the maximum Netflix allows.

It’s important to note that there are two possible explanations for this behavior. The first is that Level 3 and Netflix are right, and that Verizon is refusing to install the equipment that would allow for better streaming performance. The second is that Verizon is right and by using a VPN, its own FiOS customer is routing traffic through ports and connections that aren’t reserved for Netflix. Since those services have much more available bandwidth, the VPN’s performance speeds up.

There are two major problems with this explanation that make it more likely that Level 3 and Netflix are telling the truth. First, there’s the fact that Verizon has a major conflict of interest — it sells its own video-on-demand and pay-per-view channels, whereas Netflix doesn’t. Arguing that Netflix hurts its own performance to make Verizon look bad when Netflix customers will cancel in retaliation is stupid; Netflix has no way to turn unhappy subscribers into premium-tier customers that pay it for better service.

Second is the law of parsimony. Verizon is trying to argue that Netflix’s preferential use of inadequate third parties produces problems. Level 3, which carries a great deal of Netflix’s traffic, straightforwardly notes that the reason Verizon’s links are all saturated at 100% is because Verizon literally won’t hook up the router. The simplest explanation isn’t always the correct one, but consider the source. One company — it rhymes with “Horizon” — has been acting in profound bad faith in multiple contexts. It failed to build out promised networks in New York and New Jersey, tore out copper wiring, fired the employees capable of maintaining that wiring, and waged a war against net neutrality already that culminated in killing the FCC’s original plan.

The other company sells access to movies and video online and depends on bandwidth and high performance networks for its business model. You decide.