Is Verizon throttling speed to certain sites?

[pwinn]

When I run a speed test, I get 15ms latency, 39.76 Mbps down, and 38.84 Mbps up.

But a site from which I download regularly (using FTPS) has recently (end of November/beginning of December) dramatically dropped in speed. Instead of my old >1 MBps per connection average, I began seeing 50 KBps, then 40 KBps, and today 30-32 KBps.

Since it's mostly one site, I'd really lean toward that site having the issue, but I contacted that site first, and a traceroute from their end seems to break down after reaching Verizon:

                                Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1. hosted.by.leaseweb.com         0.0% 10 0.2 1.6 0.1 14.7 4.6
2. 85.17.31.246                   0.0% 10 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.0
3. te0-0-0-0.ccr21.ams06.atlas.   0.0% 10 0.7 0.8 0.5 1.8 0.4
4. be2298.ccr22.ams03.atlas.cog   0.0% 10 1.4 1.4 1.3 1.7 0.1
5. be2275.ccr21.lon13.atlas.cog   0.0% 10 11.3 10.6 8.8 11.5 1.2
6. te0-7-0-4.ccr21.jfk02.atlas.   0.0% 10 79.3 78.8 76.4 88.5 3.7
7. be2097.mpd22.jfk02.atlas.cog   0.0% 10 88.5 84.4 81.1 88.6 3.0
8. be2060.ccr21.jfk05.atlas.cog   0.0% 10 85.3 94.7 82.5 124.6 17.6
9. 0.xe-8-3-0.BR2.NYC4.ALTER.NE   0.0% 10 112.7 126.3 109.1 164.2 20.8
10. P0-8-0-0.DLLSTX-LCR-21.veriz 50.0% 10 160.9 156.3 151.7 160.9 4.3
11. pool-173-57-185-186.dllstx.f 90.0% 10 161.7 161.7 161.7 161.7 0.0

That's a lot of packet loss once things hit verizon routers. It starts to worryingly feel like throttling.

I know this is fuzzy. Like I said, the Verizon Speed Test still says everything is hunky-dory. That said, I'm not paying for FIOS in order to get 256 Kbps downloads.

Any thoughts?

[pwinn]

I should add that I have an Actiontec MI424WR.

[tns2 · Accepted solution]

???  what network are you starting from.  Doesn't look like Verizon.  

Scratch that I see you said its their trace.

Verizon is in dispute with some other networks about peer to peer.  Not throtling, but just not enough capacity and Verizon wants them to pay for the necessary upgrades.  Cogent (isg that what we are seeing as cog) is definitely one of them.

[pwinn]

That makes sense, because *sometimes*, especially during work hours like today, I still get speeds like 1.7MBps down. Later in the evening, I'm sure it will drop to what I reported earlier. As if a very, very tiny pipe connected the two, and I have it mostly to myself right now, but share it with the unwashed hordes most of the time.

If this isn't resolved somewhat soon, I may have to consider an alternative to FIOS. Sigh.

Thanks, TNS_2.

[cswalsh]

I like that is thread is marked "solved," simply because we think we know what's causing the slowdown. 

I have been having this same problem (download speed dropping to 40 kbps on a number of sites) for the last few weeks. It's been driving me crazy and has made working from home impossible.   Last night I needed to download a 400 MB video file to review and revise.   FIOS told me it would take two hours.  I didn't have two hours, so I drove to a house that had Comcast, hooked up my laptop, downloaded the file in 6 minutes, and worked from there.   Let me be clear - I don't like Comcast, I left Comcast for FIOS and have been a happy Verizon customer for several years.

But if Comcast can outperform FiOS, there has been some major breakdown in management or operations at Verizon.

Disputes with business partners and necessary negotiations are part of corporate life.  But when you punish your customers, your end users, to try to leverage a better deal, that's a mistake.   We are paying for a service, a service that Verizon is choosing to disrupt so they can perhaps negotiate a better deal for themselves.  So it seems like the real "solution" is to switch to a different web/cable/phone provider.