Netflix slow on Verizon or Comcast? A VPN might speed up that video

Netflix slow on Verizon or Comcast? A VPN might speed up that video

Feb 15th 2014, 13:15, by Jon Brodkin

No VPN for me, thank you.

Comcast

Since reporting on Netflix data that shows months-long declines in streaming performance on Verizon and Comcast, we've heard from several readers who say they've eliminated video problems by using VPN services.
"Netflix on Comcast tanked for us in the past month or two," one commenter wrote. "We would spend more time buffering than actually watching video. Once we set up a VPN with UnblockUs it magically went away."Another reader sent us bandwidth statistics from his home that compared traffic on Comcast to traffic over a VPN, saying the poor Comcast performance proves that "they throttle Netflix heavily." Similar accusations have been leveled against Verizon.
No one has actually shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that ISPs directly throttle Netflix traffic. Throttling may be legal in the US now that Verizon has convinced a court to strike down net neutrality rules, and Netflix has criticized ISPs, but it hasn't gone so far as to allege throttling. Netflix performance does vary by ISP, but we can't rule out the possibility that Netflix's own practices are causing bad outcomes for consumers. It's also possible that no one is doing anything particularly nefarious.