US Telcos Are Slowing Internet Traffic To and From Popular OTT Apps Like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video, New Research Finds (bloomberg.com)

The largest U.S. telecom companies are slowing internet traffic to and from popular apps like YouTube and Netflix, according to new research from Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Bloomberg: The researchers used a smartphone app called Wehe, downloaded by about 100,000 consumers, to monitor which mobile services are being throttled when and by whom, in what likely is the single largest running study of its kind. Among U.S. wireless carriers, YouTube is the No. 1 target of throttling, where data speeds are slowed, according to the data. Netflix's video streaming service, Amazon.com's Prime Video and the NBC Sports app have been degraded in similar ways, according to David Choffnes, one of the study's authors who developed the Wehe app. From January through early May, the app detected "differentiation" by Verizon Communications Inc. more than 11,100 times, according to the study. This is when a type of traffic on a network is treated differently than other types of traffic. Most of this activity is throttling. AT&T Inc. did this 8,398 times and it was spotted almost 3,900 times on the network of T-Mobile US and 339 times on Sprint's network, the study found.

Comments

Wrong tense

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Meanwhile, the ISPs are trying to claim that the FTC doesn't have jurisdiction. They pushed for the FCC to push it off to the FTC and now are trying to push the FTC off.

The ISPs already got the Supreme Court to agree that the FTC couldn't regulate NN, and that only the FCC did. Unsurprsingly, they took advantage of this to start fucking with sites, including blocking mobile payment systems they didn't own. Surprsiingly, a few months later, the FCC did put NN regulations in place. Note, this all happened several years ago.

See also, why all the "things weren't so bad pre-FCC NN" comments were bullshit. Because the FTC was allowed to regulate them for a while, and it trended hellish when neither agency did

Re:Wrong tense

[Jane Q. Public]

Most people have no real idea about the actual history of Net Neutrality.

We had de facto net neutrality regulations for 6 of about the last 7 1/2 years. And not was so bad that hardly anybody even noticed.

We also had Title II coverage when the internet was all done over phone landlines.

Which means that actually, during the majority of the history of the Internet in the United States, it was covered by one or another version of Net Neutrality.

When cable companies started offering Internet services, the FCC agreed to not try to regulate them as long as they voluntarily agreed to certain Net Neutrality rules. So while it wasn't a matter of law, there were conditions for FCC keeping its hands off.

But over a period of about 15 years or so, the cable company lobbyists chipped and chipped and chipped away at these provisions until by 2015, there wasn't much left.

That's why a separate Net Neutrality regulation was passed in 2015.

And it should have stayed there. This notion that they will all play like nice competitive capitalists given lack of regulation is demonstrable BS. They cheated on the rules even when they were regulated.

EFF has a very good history of Net Neutrality on their website.