Netflix’s acknowledgement that it has been throttling video speeds on AT&T and Verizon comes one week after T-Mobile CEO John Legere accused the two bigwig wireless carriers of throttling video speeds for their customers. You have to wonder if this was some sort of backend deal between AT&T, Verizon, and Netflix to throttle video without putting the onus on either of the mobile carriers.
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Netflix says it has been slowing video speeds on Verizon and AT&T for five years.
The company said it has capped worldwide the default bitrate for viewing over mobile networks to 600 Kbps (kilobits per second), to protect its members from overage charges when they exceed mobile data caps.
Netflix admitted Thursday to throttling video streams worldwide for its mobile users, but said it hasn’t been an issue for customers.
“Our research and testing indicates that many members worry about exceeding their mobile data cap, and don’t need the same resolution on their mobile phone as on a large-screen TV to enjoy shows and movies”, Netflix spokeswoman Anne Marie Squeo wrote in a blog post.
Netflix has been a vocal supporter of net neutrality of years, but behind the scenes, it turns out the company hasn’t been treating all customers the same. At the time, Netflix advocated for strong rules that would prevent Internet providers from slowing down its content. But it now appears that even as the company asked regulators to ban throttling by carriers, it had no qualms about reserving that tactic for itself. So mobile video revenues remain elusive for carriers that have long dreamt of tapping that market. It claims that by doing so, it’s saving the data cap of customers on AT&T and Verizon.
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Netflix has a video on its website that includes real-time data on the quality of the video stream. “We’re outraged to learn that Netflix is apparently throttling video for their AT&T customers without their knowledge or consent”, said Jim Cicconi, the company’s senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs. Netflix says that watching two hours of HD video on a mobile device would consumer up to 6GB of data, more than an entire months allowance on some plans.
