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posted by takyon on Thursday September 13 2018, @10:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the wireless-tubes dept.

YouTube, Netflix Videos Found to Be Slowed by Wireless Carriers

The largest U.S. telecom companies are slowing internet traffic to and from popular apps like YouTube and Netflix, according to new research from Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The researchers used a smartphone app called Wehe, downloaded by about 100,000 consumers, to monitor which mobile services are being throttled when and by whom, in what likely is the single largest running study of its kind.

Among U.S. wireless carriers, YouTube is the No. 1 target of throttling, where data speeds are slowed, according to the data. Netflix Inc.'s video streaming service, Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Video and the NBC Sports app have been degraded in similar ways, according to David Choffnes, one of the study's authors who developed the Wehe app.

From January through early May, the app detected "differentiation" by Verizon Communications Inc. more than 11,100 times, according to the study. This is when a type of traffic on a network is treated differently than other types of traffic. Most of this activity is throttling. AT&T Inc. did this 8,398 times and it was spotted almost 3,900 times on the network of T-Mobile US Inc. and 339 times on Sprint Corp.'s network, the study found. The numbers are partly influenced by the size of the networks and user bases. C Spire, a smaller privately held wireless operator, had the fewest instances of differentiation among U.S. providers, while Verizon had the most.

Also at Marketing Land.


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  • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Friday September 14 2018, @12:03AM (4 children)

    by richtopia (3160) on Friday September 14 2018, @12:03AM (#734564) Homepage Journal

    At least T-Mobile advertised these services get priority, even before net neutrality was lost.

    https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/binge-on-streaming-video [t-mobile.com]

    I was afraid that instead of slowing certain servers, carriers would start giving priority to select servers. I guess I was mistaken.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @12:09AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @12:09AM (#734569)

    But doesn't T-Mobile giving them priority constitute a violation of Net Neutrality?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @12:27AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @12:27AM (#734582)

      No, it's neutral. People keep trotting out that T-Mobile thing as if it's a violation of net neutrality, but they zero rate based upon the technology being used and anybody is allowed to use it without charge.

      It's basically just a bit of encouragement to compress the streams in a way that allows for the users to use less data, not based upon the actual source of the data.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @11:44AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @11:44AM (#734786)

        IMHO - Zero Rating = Violation of Net Neutrality principals.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by jmorris on Friday September 14 2018, @12:26AM

    by jmorris (4844) on Friday September 14 2018, @12:26AM (#734581)

    Read the rest of the fine print. They allow unlimited binging in exchange for you agreeing they can partner with the select content providers in the program to make sure you stream at a sensible datarate. Since it is intended for phones, all free binged video is strictly standard def and fairly low rate. This makes it sensible enough to offer since it is less likely to bring the network to a crawl for the other customers.