Netflix Peering Dispute with Verizon
optivity
Contributor - Level 3

Have Netflix subscribers who stream video through Verizon FiOS  Internet service recently noticed a visible decline with the image quality they are receiving?

Since the Open Internet rules have been struck down:

http://business.time.com/2014/02/19/netflix-verizon-peering/?iid=biz-main-mostpop1

My Netflix streaming service is awful.

Nothing has changed from my end except I pay more for FiOS service now than ever before.

I'm paying $200 per month for a Verizon FiOS Triple Play package with a 35 Mbps up/down Internet connection and stream Netflix video wireless to a PS3 that reports a 15 Mbps down connection where Netflix Super HD streams max out at 7 Mbps.

So can Verizon explain why I'm receiving a bit rate as low as 240 Kbps from Netflix?

If something isn't done to improve my service I will have to cancel my subscription to Netflix, maybe while I'm at it I will also terminate Verizon FiOS.

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Re: Netflix Peering Dispute with Verizon
fiatlux
Newbie

I have noticed problems using Netflix on Verizon.  I think all FIOS subscribers should know that Verizon just demanded that Netflix pay higher Internet fees to Verizon.  All FIOS users should write a complaint to the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Genachowski using the form found at: http://transition.fcc.gov/commissioners/genachowski/mail.html

NO ONE forced Verizon to enter into the Internet Services Provider business.  They did so with the hope of reaping enormous profits from subscribers!  Only now that Internet subscribers are starting to use higher bandwidth services such as Netflix Verizon wants to start milking the Internet even more.  FORGET IT VERIZON!   If you don't like the Internet being an "all you can eat" service you should not have entered it in the first place but now you see the future no one is begging you to stay.  Pick up your FIOS toy and go home!

If Verizon succeeds in milking higher fees from Netflix I will close my FIOS connection and go back to the cable company!!!

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Re: Netflix Peering Dispute with Verizon
richandrews
Newbie

Doesn't this mean that

a) I pay a premium for a monster, guaranteed fiber bandwidth

b) Verizon is limiting my service arbitrarily, so I cannot utilize the bandwidth I paid for

{please keep it relevant}

And, yes, it has been very noticible to get delays in streaming and I bark "I HAVE FIBER **bleep**"

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Re: Netflix Peering Dispute with Verizon
reschenk
Newbie

I have been unable to connect to Netflix through my Samsung Smart TV or my blueray smart DVD for some time.  Netflix tells me this is because I do not have enough band width.  Since I am currently paying extra for the fastest internet FIOS connecion Verizon provides residential customers, this seemed odd.  If, as seems likely, the problem is because Verison is deliberately limiting Netflix speeds in an attempt to shake Netflix down for higher fees, my appropriate response would seem not to cancel Netflix, but to return to Cox.

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Re: Netflix Peering Dispute with Verizon
craigdesu
Newbie

I used to be a Verizon shareholder and dumped my shares after they started slowing down the speed for Netflix. My next move willbe to switch to Optimum . I even fell for the extra 10 bucks per month for the 50MB internet which is only about 26MB !

Come on VZ...dont you make enough money on our monthly packages?

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Re: Netflix Peering Dispute with Verizon
FrustratedUser22
Enthusiast - Level 2

Yes, nothing like trying to double dip or triple dip while offering their own Verizon RedBox Streaming Service that is not hindered by this internet fiasco.  Strange I had no problems until after this service was launched last year.  I didn't notice too much of a problem until November, but lately Netflix and sometimes even Amazon are completely unusable.

Comcast has gotten payments from Netflix now and are trying to still get more money from Cogent as well as other providers.  That is just pure out and out greed.  I'm paying Verizon  for network access so I can pull data from any location that I want.   As I understand peering agreements they are meant for traffic crossing a network providers network.  It is not for traffic requested by a paying client on Verizon requesting data from the next zone over at Netflix/Cogent.  And Netflix even offers to supply Verizon with a local video cache so everything is on Verizon's own network -- all for free as I understand it, but Verizon and other major ISPs refuse this service so they can demand money from everyone else.  Just shows how greedy ISPs really are.  Screw the customer since they have no where else to go.

Unfortunately the FCC already knows about the issue and recently lost a case to Verizon which is not helping matters now.  I believe the FCC is trying to rework the rules already.  What needs to be done is contacting the Better Business Bureau and your legislators and tell them about the crap these monopolies are pulling.   ISPs need to be just ISPs without any media outlets or other content services.   Their whole existence is a conflict of interest to the consumer.   And they wonder why people pirate content.  It is too difficult to get quality service.  Why pay for crap when the free pirated stuff is easier to get and is top quality.   Media companies are so out of touch with people and the customer is nothing more than a fat bonus to them.

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Re: Netflix Peering Dispute with Verizon
CThomp1
Newbie

I have noticed a significant decline in the quality of service.  I have 75GB down and I test it routinely. I run a gigabit ethernet from my verizon router to an AC1950 router to increase my signal in the house. But when I am watching Netflix it is constantly interrupted by pauses in streaming and pixelation even on the gigabit wired connections I get the same performance as wireless. Totally unacceptable and it might be time for a class action lawsuit against these pirates.  From what I can see on this forum and others online there are a lot of unhappy users.  I pretty much believe the trouble began when they inked the deal with Redbox.  Netflix didn't help themselves either on making a deal with Comcast. Now every Internet provider has their hand out.  I shouldn't have to pay 100+ bucks a month for a high speed connection that can't deliver basic service.  I visited Japan and they have speeds ten times faster and pay next to nothing.  What gives?

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Re: Netflix Peering Dispute with Verizon
Hubrisnxs
Legend

FWIW I haven't noticed any trouble, and this is an issue completely related to how netflix routes your traffic.

They actually have quite a bit of control.


In a little known, but public fact, anyone who is on Comcast or Verizon and using Apple TV to stream Netflix wasn’t having quality problems. The reason for this is that Netflix is using Level 3 and Limelight to stream their content specifically to the Apple TV device. What this shows is that Netflix is the one that decides and controls how they get their content to each device and whether they do it via their own servers or a third party. Netflix decides which third party CDNs to use and when Netflix uses their own CDN, they decide whom to buy transit from, with what capacity, in what locations and how many connections they buy, from the transit provider. Netflix is the one in control of this, not Comcast or any ISP.


See The below articles.

 Unbalanced Peering, and the Real Story Behind the Verizon/Cogent Dispute (cogent is one of netflix's providers)

This article details the technical aspect of it, pretty interesting read if you're into that sort of stuff. Verizon Signed a similiar deal with netflix as well.

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Re: Netflix Peering Dispute with Verizon
PJL
Master - Level 3

I'm in the LA area and just opened a Netflix account.  All streaming over the past week (and we've done alot at all times of the day and evening) has been flawless and those that are supposed to be in SuperHD are streaming at that rate with no buffering at all.  They don't start out at the high rate but increase to it within about two minutes unless the stream is restarted in which case the quality seems to he at SuperHD immediately.

We had Netflix up to August 2013 and had relatively clean streaming too, but that was before the downward trend began last year.  We never saw the issues those on the East Coast were reporting.  So either we're using the same "good routing" as before last August or the transit arrangments has been implemented between Netflix and Verizon.  In either case, we're extremely happy.

(FYI I'm speaking from experience using the Netflix app on a Sony Blu-ray player, the Windows 8 Netflix app on a PC running Windows 8.1,, and Android tablet Netflix app casting to a Chromecast device.  All provide SuperHD quality and full Dolby Digital HD audio.)

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