“We’ve been making interface experiment over the prior few days to optimize the production of video demands on our channels,” a Verizon Wireless spokesperson said. “The examination should be performed shortly. The consumer video activity was not changed.”
This is a really ominous statement, obviously leading to something totally separate from what consumers really experienced. What consumers saw wasn’t optimization, but a thin cap, with tests from Netflix’s speed-test tool displaying measurably cheaper rates than non-Netflix tests.
While Netflix was the exclusive service to become a speed-test tool providing analyses, it now seems that similar caps were implemented to all video demands on the Verizon Wireless network.
The following report from a Verizon spokesperson took issue with this article, declaring it “dead wrong” and stating that it “makes no sense.”
“We are continually testing the network,” the spokesperson said. “It’s what we do, to optimize production for our customers. The test was over the board, and did not target any specific applications.”
At the very time, the spokesperson established that a 10Mbps cap was in the room for some users. “The customer video action should have been simplified by the test,” the spokesperson wrote, “since the 1080p video is HD feature and looks great at 10 [Mpbs].”
Those explanations seem compatible with an across-the-board feed on video applications, put in place outdoors any exposure to customers. It’s faithful that, as we looked out in our original article, many users would not be ready to perceive a 10Mbps limit on video rates. Still, if that’s what Verizon intends by optimization, then it seems an awful lot like the throttling situations net neutrality advocates have been hinting about for years.
It’s worth getting that Title II is still authorized the law of the land, and although the FCC is making its best to roll it back, Verizon Wireless is still authorized a common carrier fixed under Title II, which means it’s bound to treat all traffic equally. There are some limitations to that for interface management, but restricting a specific service is a textbook breach of those rules. Netflix traffic was visible, tangible being used differently from different traffic, and customers hadn’t opted into any particular service like Go90 that might justify it.
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