VPNs Can Bypass Verizon's New Video Throttling System Verizon this week announced that the company would be throttling all video over its wireless network moving forward, banning 4K streaming entirely, and only dedicating 10 Mbps of bandwidth to any traffic its network determines to be video. When Verizon was testing this throttling recently many users noticed that use of a VPN managed to avoid the restrictions, and with the throttling now live, companies like NordVPN tell us that VPNs still work, for now.

"Since the news spread that Verizon might be throttling streaming speed, we at NordVPN have received some customer inquiries, asking if using a VPN would allow them to stream at regular speed,” said Marty P. Kamden, CMO of NordVPN in an e-mail. “While a VPN can slow down Internet traffic in some cases, it’s a good option to use when an ISP interferes with normal streaming speeds," Kamden adds. "Without a VPN, a user will more likely get limited speeds from their ISP, which creates buffering, delays and lower quality videos. A VPN allows to stream videos with fewer interruptions.” To be clear, most users won't really care that Verizon is now throttling all video by default, given the difference between 720p 1080p and 4K is negligible on the small screen of a smartphone. That said, the real worry here among consumer advocates and many consumers is in the precedent Verizon is setting. Verizon has a long-thirty year history of anti-competitive behavior, and is now demanding additional money just to stream videos at speeds many customers believe should be determined by the end user and the server they're accessing. They're not alone; Sprint already opened the door to this behavior by charging users a premium to avoid the throttling of videos, games and music. And while banning 4K and charging more to avoid throttling isn't the end of the world, with Verizon at the vanguard of killing net neutrality protections, anybody remotely familiar with the company's behavior should be asking themselves what kind of limits, caveats, or other value-killing restrictions will be coming down the pike. If you're on Verizon Wireless, share your experiences with whether a VPN helps dodge the company's new throttling in the comment section below. If you're on Verizon Wireless, share your experiences with whether a VPN helps dodge the company's new throttling in the comment section below.







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Most recommended from 45 comments



F100

join:2013-01-15

Durham, NC Alcatel-Lucent G-010G-A

(Software) pfSense

Pace 5268AC

9 recommendations F100 Member AT&T fiber + psSense + open VPN With fiber speeds now, I'll gladly run my my own VPN from home that no one can block as it will be your home IP address if you use Open VPN on something like pfSense or one of the consumer routers. With AT&T Fiber's 300Mbps and 1Gbps upload, it's more than enough to max out VZW's over taxed network.



I did this when T-mobile started doing the same to traffic back before the current plans. And yes, if you use Watch ESPN and you work with Video, you can tell the difference in 480p and HD resolutions even on a Nexus 5x. The best example is to toggle WiFi on and off while streaming and watch the picture quality get better and then worse again. It's the detail that is lost at lower resolutions so sports is a good example of how compression kills detail on fast moving images. ILikeTech

join:2015-03-09 3 recommendations ILikeTech Member Dont all of the other wireless providers do the same thing? T-Mobile is limiting video to 480P, Verizon limiting to 10mbps (which is likely going to be a good bit better than 480p) yet T-Mobile is always the hero and Verizon is the worst.



what am I missing? rocKeNC

join:2010-10-30

Pasadena, CA 2 recommendations rocKeNC Member Not for Netflix This is true but unfortunately, Netflix blocks most VPNs.

tshirt

Premium Member

join:2004-07-11

Snohomish, WA 2 recommendations tshirt Premium Member 720p 1080p and 4K is negligible on the small screen of a smartphone If you can lie about where you are and what you are doing, there is a good chance you can spoof the device type too or at least tether to a much larger screen.

For now at least, they let you get away with it, but you can comprehend why they won't commit to a more net neutral policy because a relatively few users could bring any given cell to it's knees.