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Why is Netflix Buffering? Dispelling the Congestion Myth

publicpolicy.verizon.com

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Re: Why is Netflix Buffering? Dispelling the Congestion Myth

#41

Post by jrs235 »

malchow wrote: post #22

"Netflix sends out an unprecedented amount of traffic" is one of several misleading locutions in this piece. Verizon customers request these packets. The ISPs' problem is that they aren't willing to change their pitch to customers. As long as their product is "internet service at ~x gbps," they are on the wrong side of this issue. So they go ransoming the content folks. The funny thing is that the dream world of the…

We need ISPs and the general public to demand that first statement be delivered as

"Our customers request an unprecedented amount of data and traffic from Netflix."

This is Verizon's problem, not Netflix's.

ADD: Netflix doesn't just randomly send data and traffic onto Verizon's network. That data is requested by Verizon ('s customers).

Re: Why is Netflix Buffering? Dispelling the Congestion Myth

#42

Post by kyberias »

rnovak wrote: post #2

They can claim whatever they want, but when you tunnel Netflix traffic through a VPN so all the ISP see's is encrypted traffic and bandwidth issues disappear, it removes all mystery. I've tried several VPN's to test out my theory, and with each one, as soon as the ISP couldn't inspect traffic, all throttling seem to magically vanish. considering what we're paying for broadband, we should be getting what we pay for wi…

Assuming you connected your Verizon IP to a VPN server that resides in a non-Verizon network, that test is insufficient to deduce that the ISP looks at the data. As Verizon is saying, Netflix does not pay enough for the data that they send. They don't need to inspect the data. By connecting your VPN to a non-Verizon network, Verizon sees the Netflix stream coming from that network (not Netflix).

Re: Why is Netflix Buffering? Dispelling the Congestion Myth

#44

Post by lostcolony »

skelsey wrote: post #18
sergiotapia wrote: post #3

It's so strange, I live in Bolivia and Netflix never buffers for me at all. I have a laughable 200kbps real download speed (1768kbps plan) and I only wait for Netflix to load for about 2 seconds on my PS4 and off I go watching on 480SD quality. I would expect the US to be much much better.

No one in the US wants to watch 480 video.

I do. Comcast. Data cap.

Of course, what I would -prefer- is to ditch Comcast, and yes, watch at a higher resolution, and I will at the first available opportunity. But can't. Because monopoly.

Re: Why is Netflix Buffering? Dispelling the Congestion Myth

#46

Post by MatthewMcDonald »

skelsey wrote: post #18
sergiotapia wrote: post #3

It's so strange, I live in Bolivia and Netflix never buffers for me at all. I have a laughable 200kbps real download speed (1768kbps plan) and I only wait for Netflix to load for about 2 seconds on my PS4 and off I go watching on 480SD quality. I would expect the US to be much much better.

No one in the US wants to watch 480 video.

There are several situations where I would be perfectly fine with 480 if it meant I didn't have to deal with loading issues. Watching a cartoon in a lower resolution doesn't detract much from the experience (IMHO).

Re: Why is Netflix Buffering? Dispelling the Congestion Myth

#47

Post by fryguy »

LandoCalrissian wrote: post #15

Long story short, Level 3 won't pay us for peering agreements so it's their fault.

It seems like Netflix is the one providing value to the Verizon network so it should be the other way around. It would be like someone saying "I'm not downloading these files from a webserver because they're not paying me to download it."

Re: Why is Netflix Buffering? Dispelling the Congestion Myth

#48

Post by trothamel »

It's always kind of strange to me that Verizon only wants to provide settlement-free peering "where the relative traffic flows between an IP network provider and us remain roughly equal".

If you were to take that at face value, it means that Verizon would happy to provide free peering if only Netflix modified its client so it uploaded a number of random bytes equal to the size of the stream it was downloading.

But that's nonsensical, right?

Re: Why is Netflix Buffering? Dispelling the Congestion Myth

#49

Post by dman »

skelsey wrote: post #18
sergiotapia wrote: post #3

It's so strange, I live in Bolivia and Netflix never buffers for me at all. I have a laughable 200kbps real download speed (1768kbps plan) and I only wait for Netflix to load for about 2 seconds on my PS4 and off I go watching on 480SD quality. I would expect the US to be much much better.

No one in the US wants to watch 480 video.

On my phone I do.
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