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Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

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Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#42
post #37

Verizon fios customer here. There has been a noticeable drop in the quality of streams in the past couple of months. The picture went from excellent > barely functional(after the FCC ruling) > watchable(after the peering agreement) still not great. Kudos to Netflix.

I noticed that Youtube performance went up around the time the peering agreement happened.

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#43
post #33

What is the point of Verizon sending such a letter? Do they think Netflix will comply? "Oh Jeez we hadn't thought this through but now with this letter and all, we understand! We'll just start blaming our own servers instead. Thanks." Or is it simply a necessary step before they sue? But if they sue, isn't it likely they'll lose? (Sue over what anyway?)

Clearly they are just preparing ground for possible future legal actions against Netflix. I don't think on their sane minds that Netflix would ever comply to that.

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#46
Awesome response to the C&D, via spokesman Jonathan Friedland:

"This is about consumers not getting what they paid for from their broadband provider. We are trying to provide more transparency, just like we do with the ISP Speed Index, and Verizon is trying to shut down that discussion."

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#47

Error message should include links to better ISPs in your area.

Unfortunately, my choices are:

1) cable internet service from TWC (fortunately - they have decent service in my area so Netflix won't be displaying the "your provider sucks here is a better one" link for me)

2) 1.5mbits/s DSL from AT&T

Some might argue that satellite and wireless providers like Clear are viable alternatives. They are not as wireless has spotty connectivity and satellite broadband has unacceptable latency.

So, my choices are either broadband through the local cable monopoly or almost-broadband DSL through the telco that refuses to upgrade their infrastructure in the area that I live.

Free market indeed. :-/

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#48
post #21

It's frustrating that Verizon and friends can make grandiose statements in their advertising about "unlimited bandwidth", "faster wifi" ,"stream 5 things at a time", etc, etc. Or lie to customers, My mother just called Comcast to downgrade her service and the CS Rep said "WiFi won't work with our Economy Plus internet plan" Yet when another entity does something as simple as showing an error message that casts them i…

What do they mean WiFi won't work? How is that anything other than a blatant lie? Reminds me of the late 90's when my ISP told me I couldn't get cable Internet because I didn't have a 486. I lied and told them I did to have the modem sent to me to hook up myself. It's a computer network, once it's in my house I can expose it as I like.

What do they mean WiFi won't work? How is that anything other than a blatant lie?

They probably mean the WiFi built into the cable modem.

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#49

Wow, what a stupid move on Verizon's part. I have to believe the Streisand effects will far and away outpace any remedial action they might try to achieve here. While I get that they are irritated by their customers calling them up knowing more about how broken their network is, than the tech answering the phone, but this is going to be the new reality. With Google, Netflix, and no doubt Amazon providing more informa…

I'm so outraged that I'm going to switch my provider from Verizon to....nobody. Since there's no competition and it looks like the providers have formed a cartel to collude on selectively restricting bandwidth to Netflix.

They've got us right where they want us.

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#50
post #21

It's frustrating that Verizon and friends can make grandiose statements in their advertising about "unlimited bandwidth", "faster wifi" ,"stream 5 things at a time", etc, etc. Or lie to customers, My mother just called Comcast to downgrade her service and the CS Rep said "WiFi won't work with our Economy Plus internet plan" Yet when another entity does something as simple as showing an error message that casts them i…

What do they mean WiFi won't work? How is that anything other than a blatant lie? Reminds me of the late 90's when my ISP told me I couldn't get cable Internet because I didn't have a 486. I lied and told them I did to have the modem sent to me to hook up myself. It's a computer network, once it's in my house I can expose it as I like.

How many of us had to bluff our way through the first gatekeeper on tech support like this?

   Tech: "Could you please unplug your computer for 20 seconds and restart it?"
   Me: "Okay. .  Okay, it's back"
Or this gem?

   Tech: "What browser are you using?"
   Me: "  Internet Explorer 6".
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