Tag Archives: Paid prioritization

Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast

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Ultimately, Alphabet’s strategic advantage against Comcast, AT&T and other massive ISPs is going to rest on a sort of mutually assured destruction. If Comcast throttles YouTube, then Alphabet can propose launching in a critical (read: lucrative) Comcast market. Further investment in Fiber, Project Fi or perhaps a 5G-centered wireless strategy will be required to give it to the leverage to bring those negotiations to a better outcome. – Danny Crichton, TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2LKflkr

ISPs should charge for fast lanes—just like TSA Precheck, GOP lawmaker says

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In Marsha Blackburn’s analogy, the buyers of TSA Precheck are online services and websites rather than home or mobile Internet users. Online services that don’t acquire Blackburn’s version of TSA Precheck for the Internet would be relegated to the standard airport security line that everyone knows and hates. (Precheck lets travelers go through airport security more quickly; it costs $85 for five years and requires a background check and fingerprinting.) – Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica https://ift.tt/2qJqoSP

Net Neutrality Gets Its Official Execution Date—But the Fights to Keep It Alive Are Going Strong

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Assuming that everything goes on schedule, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s “Restoring Internet Freedom” order will be published in the federal register tomorrow and become formal policy for the agency sometime around April 23rd. There’s no reason to believe that this Federal Communications Commission will reverse course on its own, but there are so many fights still to be resolved over the next year or so, and it’s even possible that we won’t have to wait until April to be reassured that all traffic on the web will be treated equally. – Rhett Jones, Gizmodo http://gizmo.do/mABzvWn

Consumer Groups Want Inquiry Into Verizon’s Netflix Throttling

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And while being stuck at 10 Mbps isn’t the end of the world, most weren’t particularly happy with Verizon’s failure to be transparent about what it was doing. Consumer groups like Free Press have called on the FCC to investigate Verizon’s throttling practices and whether they violate the existing net neutrality rules (however long those last). – Karl Bode, DSL Reports http://ift.tt/2uD6qtX

Verizon Wireless Users Claim Company is Throttling Netflix

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Verizon Wireless users over at Reddit have been complaining this week that the company has started throttling their connections to Netflix without informing them of the change. […] When these same users use the same connection to stream or access Netflix’s speedtest with a VPN […], the limitations magically disappear. – Karl Bode, DSL Reports http://ift.tt/2vrvfZI

Netflix launches Fast.com, the simplest internet speed test ever

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photo: Fast.com, The Next Web

Netflix does give you the option to compare your results with Speedtest.net,which provides detailed results on upload speeds, latency and other metrics as well. That’s a nice touch, given the companies aren’t affiliated at all – there’s isn’t even a link to Netflix proper. Of course, this is all part of the company’s continued vendetta against slow ISP speeds, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see links to Fast.com show up on the Netflix site and apps, especially when users are having connection problems. – Napier Lopez, The Next Web

Comcast and Charter may soon control 70% of 25Mbps Internet subscriptions

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photo: Free Press/Flickr, Ars Technica

Market share measurements based on the 25Mbps standard could factor into the FCC’s ongoing review of Charter’s merger. Comcast’s attempt to buy TWC was prevented by the FCC over fears Comcast would use its greater size to harm online video services. But Charter argues that it isn’t a danger in this case, because Charter doesn’t impose data caps and promised not to charge online video services like Netflix for network interconnection deals that improve video quality. Charter said in November that it would serve 23 percent of the nation’s 25Mbps-and-up broadband subscribers if it can buy TWC and BHN. Comcast has about 47.6 percent based on our calculations, pushing the two companies’ total over 70 percent. The vast majority of Comcast subscribers have speeds of at least 25Mbps. – Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica
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