Verizon Accused of Intentionally Slowing Netflix Video Streaming

colinneagle writes "A recent GigaOm report discusses Verizon's 'peering' practices, which involves the exchange of traffic between two bandwidth providers. When peering with bandwidth provider Cogent starts to reach capacity, Verizon reportedly isn't adding any ports to meet the demand, Cogent CEO Dave Schaffer told GigaOm. 'They are allowing the peer connections to degrade,' Schaffer said. 'Today some of the ports are at 100 percent capacity.' Why would Verizon intentionally disrupt Netflix video streaming for its customers? One possible reason is that Verizon owns a 50% stake in Redbox, the video rental service that contributed to the demise of Blockbuster (and more recently, a direct competitor to Netflix in online streaming). If anything threatens the future of Redbox, whose business model requires customers to visit its vending machines to rent and return DVDs, it's Netflix's instant streaming service, which delivers the same content directly to their screens."

Comments

Re:aren't there laws against monopolistic practice

[L4t3r4lu5]

As such, it is their duty to provide a stable, reliable network and INSTALLING RANDOM SHIT is the antithesis of this.

You are paid to provide internet access TO WHATEVER RANDOM SHIT I CONNECT TO THE LINE I PAY YOU FOR.Your say in the matter stops at the wire coming into my premises. Whatever I connect, equipment wise, is NOYFB.

By the way, in this instance *I* am the sysadmin, even if I'm a home user. It's MY network inside my house, not yours.