Anne Marie Squeo, who is part of the Netflix communications team, updated the company's blog on Monday with a brief summary regarding the ISP Speed Index for August. She said that interconnection agreements with AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Verizon have resulted in better connections for Netflix customers. That means less buffering, faster start times and a better picture.
"The Netflix ISP Speed Index is based on data from the more than 50 million Netflix members worldwide who view over 1 billion hours of TV shows and movies streaming from Netflix each month. The listed speeds reflect the average performance during prime time of all Netflix streams on each ISP's network and are an indicator of the performance typically experienced across all users on an ISP network."
In July, AT&T's U-Verse average speed was 1.44 Mbps, followed by its DSL service with 1.11 Mbps. For August, the U-Verse speed took a dramatic turn for the good with an average of 2.61 Mbps. The DSL service also saw a slight increase with an average speed of 1.81 Mbps; still not ideal, but better.
On the Verizon front, its FiOS service had an average speed of 1.61 Gbps, and its DSL service had an average speed of 0.97 Mbps in July. For August, the speeds jumped up to 2.41 Mbps and 1.31 Mbps, respectively. Time Warner Cable also saw a slight increase, moving up from 2.16 Mbps in July to 2.59 Mbps in August.
Overall, Cablevision's Optimum service provided the fastest speeds in August at 3.11 Mbps. This was followed by Cox (3.03 Mbps), Suddenlink (2.92 Mbps), Comcast (2.90 Mbps), Charter (2.88 Mbps), and Mediacom (2.67 Mbps). AT&T's U-Verse saw the biggest gains in August (+7), whereas CenturyLink saw the biggest loss (-3).
Netflix agreed to pay AT&T for a smooth connection back in July. According to Reuters, the two established new network connections so that Netflix can send video directly to AT&T servers. Netflix made a similar deal with Comcast Corp in February 2014, Verizon Communications in April 2014 and Time Warner Cable in August.
Netflix said back in July that ISPs "should not impede, favor, or charge Internet services that consumers choose to use." The comment, among others, were sent to the Federal Communications Commission during the Net Neutrality proceeding.
"The Commission should adopt clear enforceable anti-discrimination and no-blocking rules for the last mile," Netflix told the FCC. "The Commission also must require ISPs to provide sufficient interconnection to cover the capacity demanded and paid for by their customers, without charging access tolls to online content providers."
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