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Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#201

Post by mschuster91 »

What an utter joke. This is only needed because unlike the backbone operators who are pushing ridiculous record traffic through the IXs these days and don't even hit any limit on their capability, the last-mile operators have not done any major investments in their infrastructure.

Cable TV internet is horribly oversold - Kabel Deutschland was already infamous, when they got bought up by Vodafone shit got even worse. DSL ... let's just say most of Germany is happy to have 16/1 ADSL. I have 100/10 FTTB via M-net and even they have load problems.

Cellphone internet is even worse but as data is horribly expensive in Germany no one dares streaming Netflix over that anyway...

tl;dr: it's not Netflix fault, it's last mile telcos who have done jack shit the last decade to build out new FTTP infra coupled with appropriate uplink capacity to the nearest IX, but people are too dumb to understand this and blame Netflix instead of directing their anger towards politicians and telcos where it belongs!

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#203

Post by philjohn »

oblio wrote: post #143
jasoncartwright wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation needed. In the UK... "UK broadband companies say they can cope with increased demand as many more people stay at home during the coronavirus crisis." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51870732

That's what they say now. Give them a few weeks and they'll start squealing. Every ISP oversubscribes for consumer segments. In the UK I guess not enough people are quarantined.

That has changed somewhat of late. With WBC there's no more "fixed" contention ratios and you pay for the last mile and then peer at national aggregation pops.

It's a far cry from the 50:1 IPStream product.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#204

Post by lwb »

ehsankia wrote: post #186
jasoncartwright wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation needed. In the UK... "UK broadband companies say they can cope with increased demand as many more people stay at home during the coronavirus crisis." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51870732

The very first line of the article > Netflix will reduce the video quality on its service in Europe for the next 30 days, to reduce the strain on internet service providers . emphasis mine.

A broadband company as referred to in the parent comment is an internet service provider.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#205

Post by martin8412 »

rosybox wrote: post #50
dogma1138 wrote: post #2

Does it mean they’ll pay me back for the 4K package?

You know, right now is not a time to be thinking about your ability to get the luxury service and goods you're used to. It's about us all staying alive and keeping each other alive and making it through this. Maybe you have to do with a little bit less than you're used to, maybe you don't think it's fair because you've paid $5 extra for your extra stream quality. None of us think what's happening is fair, but we have…

But this is a completely unnecessary measure. Most ISPs in the EU don't have any problems keeping up with the increased demand. To make matters worse most Netflix content is served directly from the ISPs network.

This is a retarded symbolic policy to make it seem like a certain EU politician is doing something, when in fact it makes no difference what so ever.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#206

Post by dogma1138 »

miguelmota wrote: post #198
Invictus0 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The technical needlessness of this decision has been thoroughly reviewed in this thread; therefore this is just a fear-based decision because of the panic. Why should anyone tolerate pointless moves like this to appease people that are panicking?

It's not a fear based decision. ISP companies sell more bandwidth than is actually available during peak times but because of everybody staying home now their services are oversubscribed creating slow downs or outages.

The ISPs came out and said bandwidth isn't an issue.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#207

Post by Dumblydorr »

cowmix wrote: post #112

When I had my Internet from Cox here in Phoenix and they started to invoke data caps, I was forced to rate limit my TVs here in the house. I have to say, Netflix does a GREAT job making sure their content works well under lower bitrates as compared to HULU and Amazon Prime. I was getting pretty good 1080 quality at 2.5mbs. If I didn't do the caps, Netflix (and other services) will stream as fast as they can.

I have Cox in Rhode Island, ostensibly 150 mbps but meanwhile my TV buffers on simple medium quality content. I am wondering if the apartment building's connection isn't prepared for so many streamers?

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#208

Post by martin8412 »

dogma1138 wrote: post #177
Invictus0 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The technical needlessness of this decision has been thoroughly reviewed in this thread; therefore this is just a fear-based decision because of the panic. Why should anyone tolerate pointless moves like this to appease people that are panicking?

I don't think it's a fear based decision, it would without a doubt reduce their costs considerably. Netflix runs on AWS and while they are paying a special rate they are still paying through the nose. Netflix is operating at a loss, has a mountain of debt and it's most profitable when people maintain their yearly sub and binge 1 show ever 2-3 months basically the same way gyms make their money you pay for a year, go…

If you subscribe to an ISP of a decent size, then most of Netflix content is served directly from your ISPs network. Netflix has servers at edge locations all over the world. They want to serve as little content as possible from Amazon.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#209

Post by Dumblydorr »

rosybox wrote: post #50
dogma1138 wrote: post #2

Does it mean they’ll pay me back for the 4K package?

You know, right now is not a time to be thinking about your ability to get the luxury service and goods you're used to. It's about us all staying alive and keeping each other alive and making it through this. Maybe you have to do with a little bit less than you're used to, maybe you don't think it's fair because you've paid $5 extra for your extra stream quality. None of us think what's happening is fair, but we have…

So companies can charge for products they can't deliver? Why should consumers bear the full brunt of the contractual price and not receive promised goods? It's not like we are stealing refunds from ordinary folks, these are heartless corporations (in USA) who squeeze every dime they can.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#210

Post by hobofan »

aeyes wrote: post #32
dylz wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For clarification, this is not a "backbone" - it is an exchange fabric.

And for further clarification, you won't see much Netflix traffic there because the big ISPs have Netflix caches within their infrastructure.

The big German ISPs don't have Netflix caches within their infrastructure, which might be part of the problem here. Last mile infrastructure might be even worse though.
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