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Verizon Accused of Throttling Netflix and YouTube, Admits To 'Video Optimization' (arstechnica.com)
New submitter dgatwood writes: According to an Ars Technica article, Verizon recently began experimenting with throttling of video traffic. The remarkable part of this story is not that a wireless ISP would throttle video traffic, but rather that Verizon's own Go90 video platform is also affected by the throttling. From the article, "Verizon Wireless customers this week noticed that Netflix's speed test tool appears to be capped at 10Mbps, raising fears that the carrier is throttling video streaming on its mobile network. When contacted by Ars this morning, Verizon acknowledged using a new video optimization system but said it is part of a temporary test and that it did not affect the actual quality of video. The video optimization appears to apply both to unlimited and limited mobile plans. But some YouTube users are reporting degraded video, saying that using a VPN service can bypass the Verizon throttling."
If even Verizon can get on board with throttling sans paid prioritization, why is Comcast so scared of the new laws that are about to go into effect banning it?
If even Verizon can get on board with throttling sans paid prioritization, why is Comcast so scared of the new laws that are about to go into effect banning it?
There's going to be lots more "optimisation" come end of net neutrality.
Optimisation I believe is based on revenue if I remember correctly.
Netflix totally brought this on themselves by banning VPNs. If I could easily connect though my VPN, then Verizon couldn't tell it was video and throttle it.
—George
[Note] Well, I guess Verizon could try to block VPN traffic like China does, but that's a whack-a-mole game if you dress your VPN in TLS wrappers, like with stunnel.
Install a custom VPN on a VPS. Don't use OpenVPN. Don't use standard ports. Don't be a fucking dumbass.
LRH Live Now! Shout out to GNAA!
They do it on FIOS too. This is what happens when your ISP is also a content provider. And we all just sit back at watch as the big get bigger. Soon if you are in a comcast or verizon only monopoly area you won't be able to cut the cord.
Att Wireless
Google Speed Test: 15
Fast.net: 2
CenturyLink broadband
Google Speed Test: 6
Fast.net: 0.8
Look, I'm as pro-net-neutrality as the next guy, but when you have people with the attention span of a gnat loading video after video in UHD on a shared wireless link just to lose interest after 20 seconds (after half the video has loaded), it probably makes a lot of sense from a network management standpoint to limit the videos to 10Mbps. T-Mobile limits most of their video to 1.5Mbps, but since they're the tech fanboy sweetheart no one bats an eye at that!
Note that I don't disagree with T-Mobile's approach, either. But ho-lee-fuck is Verizon getting a lot of shit for quietly limiting video to 7 times T-Mobile's video data rate. I'm sure that everyone can get along just fine only watching their mobile video in 1080p on their 5" screen. And before someone chimes in with "what about the rurrral users who can only get cellular data", then I guess a trade off to living in the country is you only get 1080p video from Netflix. Poor babies.
Sure, this could be a slippery slope to silencing dissenting speech on the internet. I get it. But until CNN, MSNBC (or Infowars or Breitbart) are being blackholed, I'll pass on this stupid battle. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
I had a really snarky and funny line to start this off with, simulating network lag, but Slashdot filters insist that I remove junk chars. from the post. sigh
I do work for people with no other access to internet other than cell they can afford. Most of them are elderly, and most of them have health monitors that report to their heath care professionals via Internet. Pacemakers are big, though there are some that use it for other health monitoring including checking to see if they've opened their medications for the day, and a few that are under court ordered monitoring while their cases are pending.
What I've noticed is that UDP packets seem to be targeted, but not TCP so much. I've started using Raspberry Pi's to wrap UDP, deliver it the cell network, then on to a cloud server, then use the cloud server to unwrap the UDP and forward it. It's not just Verizon I see this issue with, but all major carriers and some minor ones. I can't say the UDP packet loss is nefarious action by the ISP. After all, the advantage of UDP is not having the overhead of TCP. But it does seem odd.
Most of the people I help out are in small towns far from any metroplex. I am training my replacement though, because as I mentioned in another post my own health is declining. I will be putting up my scrips to github shortly so if you're interested in helping out folks, you don't have to re-invent what I've done. A lot of it is bash with standard utilities, but some of it is python or C programs. All of it is documented to the point of "A PHB can do this." because that's the way I document. Smart folks can scan it for nuggets, and those not well versed in the art can advance their skills.
Aside: One of the scripts had a one liner - but the documentation for that single line runs three pages. It has to do with taking a hundred lines of data, formatting it, wrapping it in JSON, and sending it on. I tell you exactly why each flag is used, why it's there and what it does, what to look for if there are errors, and where to find more information if I didn't cover it. Yeah - a bit of over kill. I'm trying to make it so that even the most inexperienced can help their loved ones if they have no other options.
I used to help set up CLECs for places without any internet, but in the past three years this have become impossible or too expensive due to changes in state law. I tired to get a pole permit (move other telecoms equipment - POTS line in this case) five years ago, and it's still pending approval. It's moot now - that pole no longer is there. It was removed when they pulled out the POTS wiring.
Anyway, Verizon isn't the most evil out there, though I don't think in any way they have a halo. AT&T in my opinion is far, far worse.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
They didn't even wait for Net Neutrality to official be cancelled before testing selective slowing down of the internet.
And Go90 stream at HD not 4K, so their cap on their service is more than their service needs.
Fuck lying Chairman Pai, the former Verizon lawyer. He said Net Neutrality wasn't needed because they wouldn't selectively slow down the internet and they're selectively slowing down the internet.
It's not Netflix's fault that an ISP is throttling their bandwidth and it is certainly not their fault that they prevent your chosen method to circumvent this from working for reasons which have nothing to do with bandwidth. The fact that an ISP is doing this is why we need net neutrality.
Shit is gonna hit the fan.
They've chosen a limit that cripples Netflix 4K down to their Go90 HD stream level.
I assumed every self respecting techie was boycotting Netfix because they are one of the driving companies behind adding DRM (EME) to HTML5. I'm surprised anyone on this board noticed. :-/