WOTW tries and fails to get mad at Netflix over throttling video streams, but senses some faux ire from the likes of Verizon and AT&T
Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
Late breaking news this week found Netflix has been throttling video streaming speeds over mobile broadband connections in a move the company said was being done to protect the precious data buckets of its customers.
Hear that low rumble outside? That’s the collective harrumph of the masses.
First of all, can we take a step back and remember when Netflix was a company that used to send out DVDs via the mail? If you wanted to watch a movie, you actually had to go to the Netflix website, pick a single DVD movie you wanted to watch – unless you had some sort of premium account when you could pick like two movies – and then wait for that movie to show up in your mail. Then, if you wanted another movie, you first had to send the one you just watched back first. And, no matter how ridiculous this seems now, this business model put every corner video store and worldwide powerhouses like Blockbuster and Hollywood video out of business.
Now, back to the near atrocity Netflix has been orchestrating on the general public.
As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, Netflix admits it has been curtailing the speed in which its video content has been streamed over mobile broadband connection to 600 kilobits per second. Sure, that sounds pretty slow in this day and age of mobile carriers claiming their LTE networks can support speeds up to 1 bazillion petabytes per second. But, as the world has somehow not exploded since this network throttling has been happening, I guess 600 kbps seemed to be OK.
Though, if you even attempted to search for commentary or responses to this admission, you would think Netflix was found to clubbing baby seals.
Even better has been the reaction from mobile operators in finding out of Netflix’s nefarious scheme. Verizon Communications claimed innocence, while AT&T threw in a claim of being “outraged.” From a public relations perspective, these claims are expected as Netflix has a bit of history in accusing Internet service providers – such as Verizon and AT&T – of degrading the video quality of its service.
But, in terms of content streamed over mobile networks, are we to believe the carriers didn’t know something was up? With how much insight carriers have into their network operations and the data traffic streaming over those networks, does it seem possible carriers have not been looking closely at a service that many have reported accounts for more than 50% of the actual volume of data traffic on mobile networks?
Hey, maybe Netflix is indeed just that good and has been able to keep this little throttling secret from the networks carrying that traffic as well as tricking the minds of consumers that think they can tell the difference in quality between video streamed at 600 kbps and whatever speed they think they were watching the content at.
Not that I think Netflix should totally be off the hook with this move. Why not just come out and say it was throttling data speeds because consumers have no idea what a kilobyte, megabyte or petabyte is and that watching a “Twilight” movie in high definition via a mobile broadband connection is going to consume basically all of their monthly data allotment?
Do we just not want to truth, especially if we can’t understand it?
I guess in the end I just can’t get that worked up over what Netflix has been doing as the faux outrage being generated from within the telecom space somehow makes me come down even more on Netflix’s side of this issue. And, I still think it’s absolutely amazing I can basically watch any movie/television show/documentary from just about anywhere for $9 per month.
https://youtu.be/akiVi1sR2rM
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. Now, here are a few videos to ponder:
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