Netflix once admitted throttling video streaming on AT&T and Verizon. The truth came out two years ago when consumers started to complain about their mobile carriers seemingly throttling video streams from Netflix. Apparently, it was Netflix who was reducing the speed. This time around, we’re hearing a similar occurrence but the blame is put on the carriers. Netflix and YouTube are only two of the more popular apps that are being slowed by US telecomes. The information is from a recent research conducted by people from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Northeastern University.
Data were gathered by the mobile app Wehe which is installed on about 100,000 phones that also have YouTube and Netflix. Video streaming service is said to be slowing down once a device is connected to the mobile Internet. Compared to WiFi, 3G or 4G LTE slows down streaming. Other similar apps include the NBC Sports app and Prime Video.
The group was checking the change in streaming speed and noticed throttling. We’re not really surprised about what’s happening when numbers have started to significantly change when a phone is connected to a mobile network.
This throttling is believed to happen only to manage Internet traffic. To be honest, we think it’s fine. Actually, it’s not that must not be a big issue. It should be normal but then again we understand if there are people who always want to maximize on what they’re paying for.
On a mobile phone screen, you won’t actually notice if the video is no longer in HD. Now we’re being reminded of that time when the EFF and the FCC were taking the issue further. It seems net-neutrality has since been forgotten by some companies.
The Wehe app used to conduct about half a million tests across 161 countries and connected to over 2,000 internet service providers. It measures the speed of each network in delivering videos for streaming.
The move to test the speed of app and streaming is a result of net neutrality being repealed. University of Michigan’s expert on privacy and mobile-computing, Florian Schaub, said:
“Efforts like Wehe are an important approach to detect whether internet service providers are engaging in traffic shaping, i.e., slowing down traffic of certain online services or apps. Now that net neutrality has been repealed by the FCC, it is important for consumers and researchers to watch out for ISPs starting to make use of their new ‘freedom’ in that way, and then call ISPs out for it.”
VIA: Bloomberg
