A message Netflix gave Verizon home Internet customers during a money dispute in 2014. (credit: Yuri Victor)
Netflix has been throttling its video streams on the Verizon Wireless and AT&T mobile networks, reducing the default bitrate to 600kbps in order to help users stay under their data caps.
Netflix's admission yesterday came a week after T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere said that AT&T and Verizon deliver Netflix video at a resolution of only 360p. AT&T and Verizon responded that they don't downgrade the quality of video, and it turns out that Netflix is the one doing the bitrate capping.
Netflix applies this default bitrate worldwide across most mobile carriers and says it has been doing so for more than five years, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. But Netflix isn't throttling on Sprint and T-Mobile USA, telling the Journal that “historically, those two companies have had more consumer-friendly policies.” Sprint and T-Mobile both offer data plans where customers can exceed their caps without being automatically charged extra fees, but they have to make do with slower speeds the rest of the month unless they purchase more high-speed data.
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