Oct
14
FiOS Tops Netflix Stream Quality Rankings – DSL Providers and Clearwire Bring up the Rear
Earlier this year Netflix began ranking the quality of video streaming performance for each of the nation's largest ISPs. HD streams have variable bitrate but can potentially top out at around 4800 kilobits per second, and the data provides a bird's eye view by ISP of sustained throughput available from a given ISP over time. Netflix's latest rankings have been released with a few new wrinkles.
Previous rankings grouped DSL and FTTN/FTTH customers into one group for both AT&T and Verizon, and slower DSL customers dragged faster services down in the rankings. Netflix has now separated these users by delivery technology, and the change dislodges Charter and puts Verizon FiOS in the top spot among all ISPs for streaming quality.
The data, which ranks ISPs over a sixty day span, found that Verizon FiOS consistently delivered streams around 2,500 kbps. Charter still tops all cable operators with streams exceeding 2,400 kbps, though most cable operators remain clumped together in the rankings. Splitting AT&T U-Verse and traditional DSL customers was less beneficial for AT&T, though U-Verse ranked close to most cable competitors.
Companies that performed poorly last time performed poorly once again in the rankings, last place taken by capped and throttled Clearwire services for obvious reasons. Traditional DSL providers like Frontier Communications, Verizon, AT&T, Windstream Communications and CenturyLink all fell on the lower end of the scale due to DSL architecture, though CenturyLink managed the best performance with Frontier and Verizon vying for last place.
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