
Netflix Throttles Its Videos on AT&T, Verizon Networks - jackgavigan
http://www.wsj.com/articles/netflix-throttles-its-videos-on-at-t-verizon-phones-1458857424
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pilom
My full time home internet connection is a grandfathered Verizon unlimited
data plan (I work full time from an RV). Unfortunately, some websites (like
Netflix) try to be "nice" and limit quality or provide the mobile only version
of their sites based on knowing that my IP is on Verizon's cellular network.
This makes for a terrible experience for me on some sites (not many
fortunately). There should never be throttling like this without an option to
select quality.

As data becomes cheaper more and more people are going to ditch their
cable/DSL companies and just use mobile data and websites need to be prepared
for it.

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AnthonyMouse
> As data becomes cheaper more and more people are going to ditch their
> cable/DSL companies and just use mobile data and websites need to be
> prepared for it.

That isn't likely to happen. The demand for wireless data is more likely to go
up than down.

This isn't like fiber where you can just replace the terminating equipment and
go from 100Mbps to 1Gbps to 10Gbps. To get more bandwidth out of the same
spectrum you need more towers. As the density of the towers increases you have
to reduce their power level to keep them from interfering with each other. So
getting more bandwidth out of the same amount of spectrum requires a quadratic
increase in the number of towers. That ain't cheap and somebody's got to pay
for it.

What seems more likely is that cellular data will get somewhat more expensive
and people will strongly prefer to have wifi because it will be cheaper.

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turndown
Do you have any more information/sources on this subject? I'm interested.

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Zizzle
I wish they would throw a dialog or interstitial that would let people know
about it.

The more people asking why they have a "reduced quality" video in 2016 despite
paying $90 for their phone plan the better.

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omarforgotpwd
This sounds perfectly reasonable

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jaytaylor
Pure clickbait.

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jkyle
Paywall.

USAToday is covering the story without paywall. [1]

Quick read indicates they aren't 'throttling' they're serving lower quality
(e.g. smaller) videos to mobile users so as not to use up their data plan as
much while they develop a feature allowing users to select their own stream
quality in app.

Seems reasonable enough.

They should have been more up front about it though.

 _Edit_

Ok, now I'm confused. How does this story relate to the existing feature to
lower your streaming quality? [2]

1\.
[http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/03/25/netflix-t...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/03/25/netflix-
throttling-video-t-verizon-users/82248762/)

2\. [https://help.netflix.com/en/node/87](https://help.netflix.com/en/node/87)

~~~
jsight
Unfortunately those settings affect all devices and all connection methods.
That often isn't desirable.

Newer versions have a mobile data saver option, but I don't think they have
rolled this out to everyone.

It is a pretty annoying problem and I've never understood why they don't just
provide the user with some simple options in the client.

~~~
seanp2k2
[https://m.reddit.com/r/netflix/comments/2fkylx/hidden_netfli...](https://m.reddit.com/r/netflix/comments/2fkylx/hidden_netflix_menu_to_set_quality_bonus_hidden/)

Works on many devices. Try also: the konami code.

~~~
jsight
How do I do that on an Android or iOS device?

~~~
seanp2k2
Try this:
[https://m.reddit.com/r/netflix/comments/2lh2xu/how_to_change...](https://m.reddit.com/r/netflix/comments/2lh2xu/how_to_change_streaming_quality_in_netflix_app_on/)

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paywallpaster
UNPAYWALLED:
[http://pastebin.com/raw/KTF69Jja](http://pastebin.com/raw/KTF69Jja)

