Can Verizon Fios stop throttling twitch.tv?

[vogels]

It's insane. 50 up/down and I can't even stream at high quality on twitch.tv. 

[AWithers04]

I have this same issue. I have been streaming for 3 years now and all of the sudden since June, I have been having issues. No dropped frames but viewers constantly stating I am buffering and I also have issues watching streams without buffering. 

I have spent hours just tonight on trying to get to the bottom of this with testing etc. It seems I got it narrowed down to either a twitch issue or verizon issue. Research is showing it more toward A twitch issue now though based off all the threads I am reading about the same problem 

[vogels]

And I've narrowed it down to Verizon. Literally every person with FIOS is having issues watching streams on twitch. 

[smith6612 · Accepted solution]

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@vogels wrote:

And I've narrowed it down to Verizon. Literally every person with FIOS is having issues watching streams on twitch. 

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I wouldn't say literally everyone. Twitch streaming (to the client) has historically worked fine in my area for all DSL and FiOS customers. The problem stems with streaming to Twitch. I have no idea at the moment if Twitch gives better priority to those who pay to use Twitch to have videos play better. I've noticed that while I can stream to Twitch fine on FiOS, some people on other ISPs see buffering on the stream whereas it works fine from Verizon Wireless and FiOS/DSL.

YMMV...

[Hubrisnxs]

Not typically a fios issue but post some traceroutes and we can take a look.  Twitch has a problem with every provider out there.

fwiw, just google twitch broadcasting problems "______________"

then insert any random carrier name, uverse, Comcast etc....

You'll see what I mean

[Gladpants]

Except this isnt a broadcasting issue only. Those people have problems becuase they have **bleep**ty uploads with inconsistent speeds. Fios provides plenty of bandwidth on all plans for the 3500kbps upload rate twitch reccomends, This issue occurs on both down and up streams, which indicates Fios is throttling the connection. Other formums have indicated that twitch and Fios are indeed in fight for money and so now we see the results, an unfortunate consequence of being bought out by a huge company with a fat wallet for Verizon to go after. 

[MMarshall618]

What does Verizon have to say about this?  I NEVER had an issue with other ISPs.  In my area, all my friends on other ISPs can watch Twitch streams with no buffering.  All my friends on Verizon as well as myself have this problem.  I got the 150/150 hoping I could watch streams, but apparently not.  Verizon, get your act together.  You are going to lose a lot of customers, myself included if this is not resolved soon. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitch/comments/2q3gtm/streaming_fine_cant_broadcast_without_constantly/cn3...

also,

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/study-comcast-and-verizon-connections-to-cogen...

[MMarshall618]

Thanks for merging this.  Let me explain some things.  I recently moved from Cox Communications and NEVER had buffering issues.  I have several friends in the area.  Everyone with verizon? Constant buffering.  Everyone with other ISP? No buffering.  The day I had the install, I was watching streams no problem, then when Fios was turned on, poof, problems.  It seems to be a regional issue.  Maybe Verizon is shaking Twitch down for money like they did with Netflix.  I called verizon and they basically said "hey we have no control if it's off our network".  I have 150/150 Fios.  Speed test shows network is fine.  Verizon tech I called said network was fine (which I already knew, I checked with other devices and other routers plus friends with other ISPs).  Now, I find it hard to believe that is the best answer they could give me.  Clearly, if this problem is Verizon specific, there's something they are doing wrong that my old ISP wasn't doing.  

I went as far as to try using a VPN to dodge throttling.  It appears it is not throttling, because it made zero difference.  My theory is that Verizon is connecting with a dodgy backbone and unwilling to change unless Twitch pays up like Netflix did.  This is beyone agitating because everyone just points the finger at eachother and there is no effort to fix this, it has consistantly been crap for months now.  

Debating breaking contract and going back to Cox Communications.  Sure, they had bad tech support and lower speeds but what use is 150/150 if Verizon is mucking up the connection and making me unable to stream a videa at a measly 1000kb/s?

[Predator7]

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@MMarshall618 wrote:

Thanks for merging this.  Let me explain some things.  I recently moved from Cox Communications and NEVER had buffering issues.  I have several friends in the area.  Everyone with verizon? Constant buffering.  Everyone with other ISP? No buffering.  The day I had the install, I was watching streams no problem, then when Fios was turned on, poof, problems.  It seems to be a regional issue.  Maybe Verizon is shaking Twitch down for money like they did with Netflix.  I called verizon and they basically said "hey we have no control if it's off our network".  I have 150/150 Fios.  Speed test shows network is fine.  Verizon tech I called said network was fine (which I already knew, I checked with other devices and other routers plus friends with other ISPs).  Now, I find it hard to believe that is the best answer they could give me.  Clearly, if this problem is Verizon specific, there's something they are doing wrong that my old ISP wasn't doing.  

I went as far as to try using a VPN to dodge throttling.  It appears it is not throttling, because it made zero difference.  My theory is that Verizon is connecting with a dodgy backbone and unwilling to change unless Twitch pays up like Netflix did.  This is beyone agitating because everyone just points the finger at eachother and there is no effort to fix this, it has consistantly been crap for months now.  

Debating breaking contract and going back to Cox Communications.  Sure, they had bad tech support and lower speeds but what use is 150/150 if Verizon is mucking up the connection and making me unable to stream a videa at a measly 1000kb/s?

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You got it right!!!unless Twitch agrred to pay Verizon $$$$$$$$ your service will be crappy!!!!Its like Verizon Vs Netflix

War all over again,it doesn't matter how much your speeds if Verizon illegally control bandwidth or put a cap on it!!!

[tns2]

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@Predator wrote:

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MMarshall618 wrote: ...

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You got it right!!!unless Twitch agrred to pay Verizon $$$$$$$$ your service will be crappy!!!!Its like Verizon Vs Netflix

War all over again,it doesn't matter how much your speeds if Verizon illegally control bandwidth or put a cap on it!!!

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 Yes could be a problem beween twitch, or more likely its ISP, and Verizon.  However Verzion doesn't control a bandwidth or put caps on it.  What happed with Netflix, is they didn't bother to enhance the number of connections as they became saturated and so capacity was inadequate.