Netflix ISP Speed Index for August

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It looks as though paying off providers has yielded "significant increases" in internet speeds for Netflix users.

In the U.S., interconnection agreements with AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Verizon resulted in significant increases in Internet speeds for all three providers in August. AT&T U-Verse led the way, with its speed jumping more than one Megabit per second (Mbps) to 2.61 from 1.44 over last month and rising seven spots in the U.S. speed index to No. 7. Verizon FiOS speeds increased to 2.41 Mbps from 1.61, and Time Warner Cable rose to 2.59 this month from 2.16 in July. These dramatic increases pushed the U.S. average speed to 2.57 in August, now ranking 11th among the countries we track -- ahead of Brazil and Chile.
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Sparky said:
They fail to mention Google Fiber at 3.53 MBS
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It's not that they don't mention it, but that, by default, Netflix shows only large ISP's. There is a button to expand and show smaller ISP's. You should be aware of this, though, since you found the Google Fiber speeds. In that case, Verizon FiOS is a horrible 46th place and AT&T U-Verse isn't much better at 37
 
I find it funny that now AT&T Uverse comes out slightly higher on the list than FiOS, even though I will always have a slightly higher opinion of FiOS. That would be mainly due to getting my first Roku and streaming Netflix for the first time one week after moving from Maryland to Illinois, where Verizon cares not to tread. FiOS was awesome back east 6 years ago, though. Of course when we got it they hadn't yet offered TV services, so we only had data and phone.

Uverse, on the other hand, has been crap for streaming for so long that they have successfully driven us back to Comcast. Just trying to find a good deal on a new DOCSIS 3.0 modem before cutting ties.
Way to go, AT&T, you POS!
 
ravx25 said:
It's not that they don't mention it, but that, by default, Netflix shows only large ISP's. There is a button to expand and show smaller ISP's. You should be aware of this, though, since you found the Google Fiber speeds. In that case, Verizon FiOS is a horrible 46th place and AT&T U-Verse isn't much better at 37
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The problem is that these Netflix "speed ratings" leave out so much and contradict Netflix's own information, which is that stable SuperHD movie and 5.1 Sound streaming requires a connection averaging up to 15Mb/s down. My own ISP, Cogent (again, a national ISP mysteriously absent from any of Netflix' statistics here) averages 50Mb/s down and I love Netflix SuperHD streaming. Makes all the difference (between "HD" and "SuperHD," the later is clearly superior.)

Basically, the entire ISP ratings are a bust because the very information Netflix omits is the information that seems to disprove its own findings, and that cannot be an accident.

I'm a great Netflix fan, and have the streaming plan and the Blu-Ray disk mailer plan combined, but I cannot understand how they consider this "ISP speed chart" to be some kind of accurate performance odometer. Why does Netflix believe that any ISP performance capable of delivering rock-solid SuperHD streaming is not to be measured and tallied? That seems exactly like Netflix is "cooking the books", if you know what I mean. Again, why is Netflix pretending that SuperHD Netflix streaming isn't worth counting? Obviously, the very ISPs Netflix says in this monthly tabulation are dog slow are either far faster than Netflix reports and do a splendid job delivering Netflix SuperHD streaming (like the 50Mb/s down my ISP provides), or, much more troubling, such ISPs (again like mine) Netflix doesn't mention at all! I cannot see an answer to that query which justifies Netflix' ISP performance chart as it is published monthly. I mean, really--if the best that Google fiber can do with Netflix is 3.53Mb/s down, that sucks royally...;) Lot of wasted fiber bandwidth there...! I'm on fiber, too, and I continuously get the ~15Mb/ps down streaming speeds Netflix tells me I have to have to get hiccup-free SuperHD streaming.

As an aside: it should be obvious how easy it is for companies to misrepresent broadband statistics in order to further their own positions relative to "Network Neutrality." Netflix has been trying to use the phrase as a form of political leverage to force its ISP carriers to provide services at their expense which directly benefit Netflix far more than the ISPs themselves (didn't work for the most part.) OTOH, at the end of the day when all else is said and done, I fear that "Network Neutrality" will become a political football with us as customers in the middle of a perpetual downpour of (R)/(D), he-said, she-said political claptrap.

I fear that what will happen with heavy-handed government bureaucracy (and of course we know going in that government is never efficient in the administration of its budgets) is *not* a government decree mandating that *all* Internet access must "henceforth supply every customer an access of no less than 50Mb/ps for the current price of the 6Mb/ps service the same customers are now forced to endure." Oh, good grief, if *that* was NN I'd be all over it...;) Biggest fan! But what NN legislation will actually do, should it come to that, is pretty much the reverse of what it deceptively pretends to offer the current broadband customer. That is, NN is more likely to slow everyone down to the same ~3.53Mb/ps speeds (featured for instance in the Netflix ISP monthly "speed" charts) and call *that* "Equal Service" and "Competition." Yes, that is where all of that NN theater is taking us all, I'm afraid. But that's the master plan, don't ya' know...;)

Why do so many people get mired in this sort of deceptive manipulation and marketing...? It's because the promises made are for the proverbial "free lunch" and that is the buying public's perceptual Achille's heel. The public is all over anything that remotely promises lots of stuff free of charge, and that's how the public gets duped every time (see, Obamacare.) In this case, what no doubt many mistakenly believe is that NN legislation will drop a Google fiber connection into everyone's lap for the price of a Comcast 6Mb/ps monthly plan...! Great notion...! I love it, but it is delusional and it is not ever going to happen.

More likely, it'll force us all eventually into the AT&T broadband mode of Internet connection---slow as molasses & much stickier--but HEY...it'll be EQUAL access, don't you know. Everybody running on the same speed: SLOW AS HELL...;)

Instead of some loony, burdensome Federal-government regulatory scheme that'll choke the life out of most smaller ISP players today and drive everyone but the Big Boys out of business, I think a constructive role for the government would be to simply open up competition access everywhere in the country so that if the big ISPs want to stay big and healthy they'll have to *vigorously compete* with local companies in every single county in the US...which means getting serious about opening up access speeds and laying fiber. If the current heavy hitters today don't want to play the competition game, fine--let' em sit still in the middle of the road as the "small fry" competitors plow them right under...;) Make the big boys compete with *everyone*, including any municipalities that want to give things a shot because their local ISPs are less than cooperative. We need competition opened wide--not burdensome regulation which hurts the little guys you are trying to help more than the big guys you are trying bring to heel.

OK, time to get back into Fringe...!:D
 
Cogent isn't an ISP AFAIK? They sell bandwith? We have Cogent here as one of our providers and they only sell us the bandwith, we get the transport (fiber) from other companies

anyway Netflix should be awesome on Cogent since Netflix gets most of their bandwith from them IIRC
 
WaltC said:
I mean, really--if the best that Google fiber can do with Netflix is 3.53Mb/s down, that sucks royally...;)
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You do know what the word "Average" means right?

For every person who's watching SuperHD movies in 5.1 there's probably 100s if not 1000s more watching standard def TV shows that don't quite require much speed.

You're really assuming a lot if you think Google Fiber users are ONLY going to watch SuperHD shows/movies.
 
I never see my ISP mentioned anywhere. Armstrong. Dickheads have been imposing bandwidth tiers for years now, with 200GB being their "heavy user" level :rolleyes:

Fortunately, they haven't been throttling any streaming content thus far. I have a VPN, so it's pretty easy to do an A-B test.

Seriously, if your ISP throttles, spend $40 a year on PIA and be done with the headache. It's plenty fast for HD streaming.
 
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