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Netflix Slows Data Transmission for Certain Customers

posted by CoolHand on Tuesday March 29 2016, @07:02PM   
from the dealing-with-hypocrites dept.

cmn32480 writes:

From CNET:

Angry Netflix customers are a force to be reckoned with, and they're the ones owed an explanation about why the company would slow the transmission of video streams to some wireless customers without informing them.

Netflix found itself in the hot seat after admitting, in a Wall Street Journal story Thursday, that for five years it had been tamping down service to Verizon and AT&T customers. What's more, the Los Gatos, California, company said the policy excluded customers of T-Mobile and Sprint.

Critics immediately cried foul on Netflix, seeing hypocrisy on the part of a company that two years ago led a fight to require the Federal Communications Commission to adopt "strong" Net neutrality rules that would ban Internet service providers from slowing traffic under almost any circumstances. Netflix also wanted the FCC to require operators to be more transparent in how they manage their networks.

But the most galling aspect may be that Netflix never notified its customers that it was imposing a slowdown.

"There is nothing wrong with what Netflix is doing," said Berin Szoka, president of TechFreedom, a group that has opposed the FCC's Net neutrality regulations. "Except for not making it public."

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Original Submission

• Re:Keep the government out (Score: 3, Informative) by tibman on Tuesday March 29 2016, @07:39PM

  by tibman (134) on Tuesday March 29 2016, @07:39PM (#324476)

  Yeah, it really doesn't seem that big a deal if i'm understanding correctly

  Netflix already lets customers adjust the settings to stream their data at a higher or lower quality, which could help them manage their data. What's more, the service automatically adjusts its stream to a higher or lower quality when the service detects network congestion. The problem lies in the fact that Netflix defaulted to a lower quality for all customers across the board on only two carriers without informing them.

  So they defaulted a user setting to lower than normal? Quite a bit different than net neutrality issues!

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