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While Comcast has admitted to throttling internet speeds in the past, according to a recent public announcement on the issue, it no longer carries out the practice. However, plenty of users are convinced that the company may still be selectively throttling speeds. In particular, users complain that Comcast is throttling Netflix and other bandwidth-heavy platforms, such as YouTube and Skype.
Researchers at Northeastern University have developed a nifty tool called Wehe to help you test if your ISP is throttling popular apps, such as Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, Skype, and Vimeo. It tests the speeds of the apps in question against the speeds of other apps on your device. A discrepancy indicates that your ISP is throttling speeds. Wehe is currently available for Android and iOS.
Not every server will work, so you may have to check with your VPN customer support team to find out which ones to use. This sounds like a hassle, but with the best VPN providers offering 24/7 live-chat customer support, this should only take a few minutes.
The only way to bypass Comcast throttling without using a VPN is by understanding your bandwidth limits. If you are concerned about exceeding your data allocation, you might consider upgrading your data plan to avoid slow connections caused by throttling.
The rankings were updated this morning with data from January. Verizon FiOS dropped from sixth to seventh best in the US, swapping places with Time Warner Cable. Comcast stayed in 14th place out of 17 rated providers, while Verizon DSL dropped from 16th to 17th, trading places with Clearwire.
The story is really in how each provider's megabits per second changed from month to month. Verizon FiOS suffered just a tiny drop from 2.22Mbps to 2.2Mbps from October to November, but then it went down to 2.11Mbps in December and 1.82Mbps in January.
(Note that if you want to see a graph containing all ISPs, or get different data sets, check out this Netflix link. The charts in this story were generated using Netflix's tool, which rearranges the values in the y-axis depending on the data being presented. Make sure to check the Mbps numbers in the y-axis when examining each chart.)
Verizon customers have been complaining about poor Netflix performance lately, so the numbers aren't necessarily a surprise. Determining the actual cause of such performance slowdowns is never easy, though. That the latest performance complaints came after Verizon's win over the FCC in a court battle over net neutrality rules led to claims that Verizon was celebrating its victory by throttling Netflix traffic.
Still, that doesn't mean Verizon isn't taking steps that degrade Netflix performance. If anything, the Netflix data shows that Verizon's performance problems started before it got the net neutrality rules overturned. And Verizon and Comcast have each garnered their share of Netflix-related complaints for months, if not years.
Netflix didn't offer any analysis of why performance would have dropped in the past few months. We do know that in the past, Verizon and Comcast have each been involved in disputes with Internet bandwidth providers, and that these disputes can prevent peering infrastructure from being upgraded. This affects all traffic, but it places a more noticeable toll on streaming video because of how much bandwidth it requires.
While the FCC's now-defunct net neutrality rules prevented Verizon from intentionally throttling specific applications, the rules never governed peering. Verizon could always harm Netflix (and other) traffic if it chose to do so simply by failing to upgrade peering infrastructure in a timely manner.
After this story published, one commenter pointed out that the declines in performance came after Netflix started delivering its so-called "Super HD" and 3D video to all customers, even those whose ISPs are not members of Open Connect. This may have increased the traffic load.
Things could get worse for Verizon customers. While Comcast is still bound to follow the FCC's net neutrality rules due to conditions placed on its merger with NBCUniversal, Verizon is under no such obligation. Verizon has readily acknowledged that it would like to charge companies like Netflix for better access to its customers. Degrading performance by failing to upgrade infrastructure is one way Verizon could force Netflix's hand.
How the Internet works can be complicated, and consumers should be aware of the fact that the integrity of their home Internet connection is only a portion of the streaming video quality equation. If their broadband connection is functioning correctly, the source of their frustration and the content they wish to see may be one in the same.
Comcast has not responded to our request for comment, but stated last month in a customer support forum that "[w]e are aware of these threads and the concerns expressed here. We are actively engaged. It is sensitive and we can't really say more than that right now."
Carrying Netflix traffic requires a lot of infrastructure, as the service accounts for 31.6 percent of all downstream traffic at peak times in North America, according to SandVine. Yet some ISPs have improved their Netflix speeds even as Verizon and Comcast falter. Google Fiber, Cox, and Cablevision in particular have been impressive. The comparisons to better performing ISPs place Verizon and Comcast in a bad light.
The Netflix data doesn't provide everything we'd want to know about performance. For example, Netflix says its "listed speeds reflect the average performance of all Netflix streams on each ISP's network." Netflix's recommended speeds range from 0.5Mbps for the most basic streams to 3Mbps for DVD quality to 12Mbps for 3D content, but we don't know what percentage of users on each network meets each given threshold.
Still, the performance drops shown by Verizon and Comcast stand out among the rest of the crowd. Few providers dropped in performance in each of the past two months, and those that did showed smaller drops than Verizon and Comcast. For example, Time Warner Cable went from 2.07Mbps in November to 2.02Mbps in December and 2.01Mbps in January. TWC shows an interesting trend, having gotten temporarily better before reverting to its usual, lower performance:
Charter dropped from 2.32Mbps in November to 2.16Mbps in January. Mediacom posted one of the biggest drops of any provider in January, but that came after an improvement in December. AT&T's U-Verse and DSL both stayed steady between November and December before posting drops in January.
Google Fiber, which has consistently placed at the top of Netflix's US rankings, upped its speeds four months in a row from 3.41Mbps to 3.78Mbps. Yes, sometimes Internet service does actually get better:
Comcast has been known to throttle data speeds of its users in the past. However, according to a recent public announcement, it appears that the telecommunications company is no longer throttling the internet or data speeds of its users.
With that in mind, several users are doubtful that the company may still be discriminating throttling speeds. Reports have surfaced where users complain that Comcast is throttling Netflix and other bandwidth-heavy platforms, such as YouTube and Skype.
Internet Service Providers throttling Netflix has been active for a while now. Fortunately, some applications test whether your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is throttling streaming and communication applications.
State of the art AES 256-bit encryption ensures no one, not even your Internet Service Providers, can view your web activities. This means you can carry on browsing, streaming video, or downloading files from the web with online anonymity.
The side effect of Net Neutrality is that it allows ISPs to throttle your connection. Customers who are subject to Net Neutrality will be forced to pay additional for using more data. That means it will cost you additional for online streaming.
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