Netflix Isn’t Swamping the Internet; ISPs are Overstating the Issue
Netflix Isn’t Swamping the Internet; ISPs are Overstating the Issue
Posted 05/22/2011 at 2:16pm
| by Justin Kerr
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Netflix has been making headlines recently over its meteoric rise in popularity, and along with it, the impact it is having on our poor, beleaguered, bandwidth starved Internet service providers. Reports suggesting the company could be consuming up to one third of all peek time Internet traffic is common, but ITWorld.com is claiming that’s B.S. And you know we can’t resist an article that promises to cut through the B.S.!
According to analyst Kevin Fogarty, Netflix employs a content-distribution system to ensure that files are located physically close to the users homes, and is only consuming bandwidth on the ISP’s edge connection. This means Netflix isn’t overloading the backbones, or even high-volume network spokes because it allows the content to be distributed and cached ahead of time. When you hit play on your TV, you’re only waiting for your ISP to serve it up locally across the last mile.
It’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that our Internet service providers are somewhat overstating the cost of bearing the Netflix burden, and it only serves to shoot more holes in their explanation as to why they feel the need to throttle or cap our connections at all. The network only needs to survive an hour or two of peak usage per day, so why would it matter how much you use at 2AM?
Either way, with bandwidth caps dropping, and Netflix use rising, we are rapidly heading towards disaster. It looks like Netflix has done everything it can to lower the cost of delivering streaming video, but ultimately they are now reliant on the ISP’s which usually offer competing services.
ITWorld thinks the ISP’s need to suck it up and stop complaining. Do you buy into their explanation?
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maleficarus™
May 24, 2011 at 6:52am
I cancelled my netflix service as I found I was just not watching enough movies to justify it...
luke904
May 23, 2011 at 1:21pm
Don't people realize thzt ISP's can't just continue to provide more and more bandwith to its users without some sort of change?
I do think that ISP's need to provide a capless internet service plan, but the truth is, we are probably using 10 times the bandwith we were a couple years ago, and ISP's can't just charge us the same rate or continue to have the same unlimited policy
bling581
May 24, 2011 at 9:55am
Do you realize that a lot of areas have only two choices for broadband providers? There's no incentive for ISP's to expand their networks and that's why we pay high prices for crap speeds. If you do research online you'll find that the United States ranks roughly 25th to in the high 30's worldwide for average download and upload speeds. It's true we're using a lot more bandwith than a couple years ago, but instead of expanding networks to handle the increased load they just deal with it by policies such as data caps in hope that it will curb usage.
Caboose
May 24, 2011 at 9:37am
Right...
With how much ISPs in North America are charging for an internet connection, they can damn well afford to upgrade their networks to handle more traffic!
Vino
May 23, 2011 at 10:49am
I think any ISP that is providing cable as well should be made to split into two companies. Its a conflict of intrest to provide both cable and internet.
Belboz99
May 23, 2011 at 9:25am
The ISP's have to remember who's using Netflix.
It's not like Netflix is the only party involved here. If they take any action against Netflix for it's bandwith usage, it only hurts the ISP's customers who are downloading it.
I do have to wonder, how many average Joe's and average Jane's out there have subscribed to a high-speed interenet service, with the sole reason being to be able to watch movies and TV shows online through services such as Netflix.
The ISP's are acting like in the movie "Clerks", where they talk about how great the job would be if it weren't for the f'ing customers.
Some businesses would actually be happy if customers, you know, actually bought and used their product.
Quit whinning!
aarcane
May 23, 2011 at 1:05am
I see my ISP as a little child. Unable to provide many of the simplest services (like static IPs), and stamping their feet and whining "I don't wannnnna!!!" whenever someone tries to make them do something they don't want to... like move netflix' competing traffic, or deliver on the services they've promised.
svelasquez99
May 22, 2011 at 10:08pm
If they put data caps or continue to severely throttle connections, they show be forced to advertise true speed rather than burst. At a minimum it should be illegal to advertise burst for products where your must sign a contract for a duration longer than a month.
JohnP
May 22, 2011 at 9:51pm
What I would REALLY like to see is a ISP "Bandwidth meter" that actually shows how much "bandwidth" the ISP "thinks" we are sucking down our greedy little throats. Mind you, I can check my router to see what I am really using but that is probably NOT the same as what my ISP is reporting. I have yet to hear of ANY ISP giving US this capability and we just have to accept when the ISP says we are capping out. You going to throttle us, fine, but let us know what the hell you are reporting real time and per month.
Oh wait, that means they could be sued for reporting bad data that they are recording but that we could measure ourselves. Never mind.
Caboose
May 24, 2011 at 9:34am
If by bandwidth you mean speed, then a simple app on your computer can tell you that. And your speed will vary. Most ISPs get around advertisting 15Mb download speed with an astrix stating that the speed is up to.
But if you mean data, then that's different. Bandwidth =/= (does NOT equal) Data.
Bandwidth = How fast you get the information
Data = The information you want.
gooberific
May 23, 2011 at 9:26am
The Netgear WNDR3700 and WNDR4000 have built in usuage meters that monitor the WAN port only . Give you up/down and total usage.
Mighty BOB!
May 23, 2011 at 7:32pm
Yeah, when my D-Link DGL 4300 went kaput a couple months ago I got MaxPC's current best of the best Netgear and I've been using the meter to watch our usage. We're using between 140 and 180 GB total per month across 3 people.
Hangdog42
May 23, 2011 at 5:17am
I'm not sure that any of the standard software on routers does this, but if you can run Tomato on your router, it has VERY nice bandwidth reporting. And if you can mount an external drive, you can save months worth of data.
Carlidan
May 23, 2011 at 12:02am
I agree with you with throttling because they might not be able to handle the traffic at certain times. But this B.S. data capping just put a bad taste in my mouth.
XNeonMan
May 22, 2011 at 4:35pm
Qwest is my ISP and the last 3 months my supposed 7+ Mb connection has been running at 1.3 at best in the evenings. They told me too many people were using too much BW so there was nothing they could do about it. I cancelled Netflix because I was just wasting that money as nothing would stream smoothly. When my contract is up in a few months I'm done with Qwest as well. These avaristic creeps will have to be dealt with sooner or later, they're just cheating their customers and manipulating the system. Where's the government on all this?
Danthrax66
May 22, 2011 at 5:45pm
The government is protecting the corporate interests (ISPs) because they fund their campaigns. We need to outlaw political ads and campaign fundraising instead you get to submit a resume of your achievements and plans that you would like to accomplish as a politican and how you would go about doing that. Then make it mandatory to read those plans for people voting (much like a ToS for software scroll down then hit I read this). This way it would eliminate a lot of the incentive to go along with corporatations.
Mastro Antonio
May 22, 2011 at 4:17pm
ISP's just want to take a slice of the money being made off of the mobile data throttling. They are greedy and know there is lots of money in that and if they do finally do this I am going completely POSTAL against them. WHO'S WITH ME?
Hamburger
May 22, 2011 at 4:15pm
No, I just think its a mixture of Hollywood stepping in to make deals with the ISPs and/or the ISPs trying to cut off Netflix to eliminate them as compititon. ISP caps... they can go to hell.
compguytracy
May 22, 2011 at 4:03pm
What about like queing a dvd, you que an instant release. download it, and have it available for 48 hours. it dl at off peak times, the 2am, and this service would be cheaper, say 6.99 per month?
spoonard
May 22, 2011 at 3:42pm
This is just a preface to introducing tiered data plans. Unlimited internet has a very short amount of time left I think. If everyone announces at once, or in a very short amount of time that they are eliminating unlimited data plans, then what is the alternative?
level1paladin
May 22, 2011 at 3:33pm
ISP's cannot be trusted and we all knew in our heart of hearts they were making this up. Maybe to justify throttling or for the mega companies to prevent us from dropping the cable side of things.
Turbobutts
May 22, 2011 at 3:01pm
Funny how this is exactly what I predicted the moment ISP announced to reintroduce caps. Internet usage is more and more bandwidth demanding and reintroducing caps is like making the wheel square shaped. And didn't US ISPs receive enormous government fundings to modernize their infrastructure ... and did pretty close to nothing? I say they can't be trusted anymore, and in this conflict either excessive internet usage or restricted data plans are doomed to fail, and I fail to see how the caps could possibly survive this duel.
You can't tie the Hulk up with sewing thread.
mls067
May 23, 2011 at 11:09am
they did something with that money, they gave the CEO's big fat bonuses. I had a link I posted on here awhile ago showing where all that money went. It was sickening !
Zachary K.
May 22, 2011 at 2:56pm
If ISPs cannot handle the traffic, than they have no business being ISPs.
Marthian
May 22, 2011 at 4:14pm
agreed. if their servers are being "overloaded" with data, then upgrade them. Sheesh, this makes it sound like they are using old servers and couldn't care less about upgrading.
We practically have Netflix open (on our Wii) 24/7, and so far, pretty sure me playing games/downloading/folding takes up more bandwidth than that.
dragonfang18
May 22, 2011 at 2:47pm
If we cannot trust ISP's with this issue, I cannot trust them on not being able to maintain unlimited data plans, which require them to switch to tiered data plans...
AnglicDemon00
May 22, 2011 at 2:31pm
That explaination makes sense, though I think most ISP's are just using this an excuse for their aging infrusctructor. Sure it will be expensive to do a complete overhall, but if they do bit, by bit, it would overall ease the flow of traffic on the backbone. Another note to mention is that overall computer bandwidth use will continue to increase so eventually the overall will have to happen.
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