Netflix decreases video quality on Verizon and AT&T

By Flickr user Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar

Netflix’s strange, quality dropping feature

Netflix is developing a new feature for their mobile platforms, where the streaming service will be capping mobile data connections and will be available in an update in May, as reported by TechCrunch. The feature is currently only highlighted through Verizon and AT&T phone services, adds TechCrunch.

However, Netflix has been slowing down video speeds over the past five years for the two phone services providers, reports CNET.

For students questioning why watching a movie on their tablet or smartphone will result in lower quality videos, the company claims it is an attempt to prevent a user from going over their data limit, resulting in jaw-dropping phone bills.

An “exclusive” trait for certain phone service providers
Users, who have either AT&T or Verizon, are testing it when they are watching the newest seasons of House of Cards or Marvel’s Daredevil. What they will start to notice is the video quality will start to decline severely, due to Netflix intentionally throttling data, as reported by Los Angeles Times.

When data is throttled, it will cause the connections made by the phone service provider to be much slower than usual. Using the Internet on a mobile browser can result in slow speeds to log on a website where videos will either take a long time to buffer and their quality will drop.

Netflix’s videos are being throttled without their users, who have Verizon or AT&T as their mobile service, knowing what the issue was, as reported by the Chicago Tribune.

Comparing the throttling to other providers such as T-Mobile, who have the Binge On option, which can allow better quality videos when streaming through the mobile data.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere observed the video quality of his competitors, when compared to his company’s and noticed a massive difference in quality, as reported by USA Today.

By Alexa Gagosz

Netflix makes a surprising announcement, wants to give more control to users
Netflix provides the questioning public about their practices. Anne Marie Squeo, a member of Netflix’s communications team, released a blog post on March 24th on the company’s website. Squeo takes note of how their users will binge watch and her company is giving them a solution to rising data costs.

“As consumers increasingly watch video over mobile networks,” she starts out in the blog post. “Netflix is constantly exploring ways to give members more control over their Netflix experience.”

“That’s why we will soon introduce a data saver feature designed for mobile apps,” she writes introducing the new component to Netflix.

She also writes about users may not realize how much their data costs can be from their provider and how the data saver feature will be helping them in the long run. However, it does result in a lowering quality of video.

“We believe restrictive data caps are bad for consumers and the Internet in general, creating a dilemma for those who increasingly rely on their mobile devices for entertainment, work and more,” Squeo writes.

“So in an effort to protect our members from overage charges when they exceed mobile data caps,” she adds in the post. “Our default bitrate for viewing over mobile networks has been capped globally at 600 kilobits per second.”

For many avid watchers, 480p is considered to the best quality when watching a video, as reported by USA Today. 480p is “DVD quality,” and the videos have an almost HD quality to them.

Netflix’s intent is to have their users to have more control over how much data they can use when watching the streaming service’s content.

Others weigh in on the streaming issues
John Cicconi, a senior executive in AT&T’s legal department, notified Netflix know how his respective company feels about their somewhat shady practices involving throttling data for their users.

“We’re outraged to learn that Netflix is apparently throttling video for their AT&T customers without their knowledge or consent,” Cicconi said in a statement released by AT&T, reports USA Today.

Berin Szoka of the Washington D.C. think tank TechFreedom, which is devoted to Internet users privacy rights on the web, comments on the issus. He states Netflix should have been public with their practices, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

“Throttling video speeds may sound scary, but it can benefit consumers for the very reasons Netflix cites today,” said Szoka to the Los Angeles Times . “So why didn’t Netflix just disclose the practice? Was Netflix afraid the angry mob it helped create would turn on it?”

Jeremy Gillula, a staff member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, another privacy right’s organization, is frustrated over Netflix’s lack of communication towards their customers, reports USA Today.

“I’m disappointed that Netflix didn’t explain this earlier,” said Gillula.”Since we believe that all companies should be clear and transparent with their customers about what to expect when it comes to the services they subscribe to.”