November 08, 2018
In news that will shock absolutely no one, America's cellphone networks throttle vids, strangle rival Skype
Net neutrality probe finds it’s not the end of the world, though
Analysis US cellphone networks are all throttling video to some extent, providing lower-quality stream to their customers, and some are purposefully undermining Skype as an alternative to their services.
That’s the upshot of a ten-month study by Northeastern University’s College of Computer and Information Science set up to see what impact, if any, the end of net neutrality rules had had only ordinary users.
On the pure question of whether the FCC’s decision to scrap its own rules has changed cellphone operators’ behavior, the answer is no, they haven’t – they were throttling before and they have continued to do so.
However, the authors note that such throttling was actually banned under the previous rules. So it was likely the case that there was not enough time for the FCC’s enforcement department to clamp down on that behavior before the rules were rescinded.
As to the throttling itself, intriguingly it is not consistent across video providers or operators, suggesting that there may be deals between certain mobile phone networks and certain video streaming companies to let their videos pass through unthrottled.
Can’t Blame Network Operators For Trying To Save Their Networks
One of the challenges facing any operator is network congestion and bandwidth availability; we believe that operators around the world will start to market mobile high speed internet just like high speed internet into the home:
- Low price slow speed
- High price high speed
5G Will act as a catalyst for global repricing; and we anticipate that the first 5G plans will be 200% To 300% higher on a like for like basis vs. the equivalent 4G bundle
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