Consumer Groups Want Inquiry Into Verizon's Netflix Throttling Consumer groups are urging the FCC to investigate Verizon's decision to throttle many Netflix and YouTube customers last week without telling anybody. Users at Reddit and Howard Forums had noticed that they were suddenly being restricted to 10 Mbps when using Netflix, YouTube, or Netflix's simple speedtest resource, Fast.com. When users used other speedtests (like ours) -- or masked their traffic destination with a VPN, the throttling didn't apply.

"We've been doing network testing over the past few days to optimize the performance of video applications on our network," a Verizon spokesperson told DSLReports.com. "The testing should be completed shortly. The customer video experience was not affected." And while being stuck at 10 Mbps isn't the end of the world, most weren't particularly happy with Verizon's failure to be transparent about what it was doing. Consumer groups like Free Press have called on the FCC to investigate Verizon's throttling practices and whether they violate the existing net neutrality rules (however long those last). "The FCC’s Net Neutrality rules clearly state that broadband providers cannot "impair or degrade lawful internet traffic on the basis of internet content, application, or service" unless it's what the agency calls “reasonable network management” for a legitimate technical purpose," the group noted. "Slowing down an entire class of applications, such as all video, would violate this no-throttling rule." "Trump's FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, has been pushing hard to undo the agency's Net Neutrality rules, but this is exactly the kind of behavior these rules are designed to stop," the group added. Verizon has subsequently claimed that their behavior was perfectly in line with existing net neutrality rules (ignoring of course that Verizon is working tirelessly to have those very rules killed). "Current net-neutrality rules clearly state that providers may employ reasonable network management practices to ensure that their networks and services run efficiently and work well for their customers," a Verizon spokesman said. "Video optimization is a non-discriminatory network management practice designed to ensure a high quality customer experience for all customers accessing the shared resources of our wireless network." And again, while that's true, another core part of net neutrality is requiring that ISPs are perfectly transparent about what they're doing, so broadband consumers know precisely what kind of connection they're buying. That clearly didn't happen here, notes consumer groups. So even if you don't think being throttled to 10 Mbps is a big deal, most of us have a vested interest in these companies being transparent about their network management practices, something that's going to become a problem should the rules be successfully killed. And again, while that's true, another core part of net neutrality is requiring that ISPs are perfectly transparent about what they're doing, so broadband consumers know precisely what kind of connection they're buying. That clearly didn't happen here, notes consumer groups. So even if you don't think being throttled to 10 Mbps is a big deal, most of us have a vested interest in these companies being transparent about their network management practices, something that's going to become a problem should the rules be successfully killed.







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Most recommended from 15 comments

CyberGuy

join:2006-08-21

Colbert, WA 12 recommendations CyberGuy Member This is the same company The very same company that just a few years ago blocked access to Bluetooth capabilities on their phones. Jerks.

GlennLouEarl

3 brothers, 1 gone

Premium Member

join:2002-11-17

Richmond, VA 7 recommendations GlennLouEarl Premium Member "reasonable network management" ...was it good for you?

Anonda116

@mindspring.com 7 recommendations Anonda116 Anon I must be getting old... I really don't care if Verizon finds it necessary to limit video to 10 Mbps for testing, it seems adequate for watching video on a mobile device. I would actually appreciate it if the end goal is to limit the impact that download bursts have on other users traffic. Tch81

join:2015-08-10 3 recommendations Tch81 Member Wow It just shows how comfortable they are with Pai to do this NOW and how screwed we are...

Anon546b9

@state.pa.us 2 recommendations Anon546b9 Anon Everyone else does it..even if they don't admit it This is no different than the other Cellular networks throttling YouTube and Netflix. T-Mobile outright admitted to it, they stream YouTube, Netflix, etc over their network at "DVD Quality" aka 480p capped resolution to cut down on data usage and bandwidth. AT&T, Sprint and others do as well even if they dont cap the quality, once you exceed a certain amount of GB usage in a billing cycle, you go to a much lower speed "network managed" connection. 8744675

join:2000-10-10

Decatur, GA 2 recommendations 8744675 Member Video optimization??? So how can throttling bandwidth be considered Video optimization? Throttling does nothing to optimize the quality of the video, it does the opposite!