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Netflix Continues to Blame Verizon for Streaming Issues

The war of words between Netflix and Verizon continued last week, with Verizon announcing they'd conducted a thorough review of their network and found absolutely no possible cause for the Netflix streaming issues their customers are experiencing. In short, Verizon says the congestion isn't their fault, instead, blaming Netflix's choice of transit partners. In contrast, Netflix and transit companies say ISPs like Verizon are intentionally letting edge peering points get congested to force Netflix to pay direct interconnection fees.

Netflix has since responded, issuing this statement to media outlets:
quote:
"We'd like to thank Verizon for laying out the issue so nicely. Congestion at the interconnection point is controlled by ISPs like Verizon. When Verizon fails to upgrade those interconnections, consumers get a lousy experience despite paying for more than enough bandwidth to enjoy high-quality Netflix video. That's why Netflix is calling for strong net neutrality that covers the interconnection needed for consumers to get the quality of INTER-net they pay for."
Last week Netflix CEO Reed Hastings also sat down with the Washington Post, taking aim at ISPs and warning that Internet video transmission will become as rancorous an issue as retransmission fee disputes:
quote:
Then the danger is that it becomes like retransmission fees, which 20 years ago started as something little and today is huge, with blackouts and shutdowns during negotiations. Conceptually, if they can charge a little, than they can charge a lot, because they are the only ones serving the Comcast consumers. Think of Comcast, post-Time Warner merger. Overnight, they get 40 percent of U.S. households with broadband. When DSL fades, we think that’s more like 50 percent of U.S. households, which is a lot of market power.
It's worth noting that while both sides claim they're in the right, neither Netflix of Verizon has actually revealed raw data performance proving such. Regulators have insisted they're going to take a look to see if there's anti-competitive behavior afoot, but that's likely to be a long and winding road to the truth. Meanwhile, Netflix's latest streaming rankings show that Verizon FiOS and Verizon DSL Netflix streaming performance is worse than ever, despite the interconnection agreement deal between the companies signed last April.

Most recommended from 44 comments



IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

6 recommendations

IPPlanMan

Member

Figures...

Despite Verizon's pushback and pretzel twisting, the truth is coming out. Thanks Netflix!
O1OOO1O
join:2005-12-23
Lewisville, TX

2 recommendations

O1OOO1O

Member

Still a good read on this topic

»www.lightreading.com/vid ··· d/709829