Now that Netflix pays Comcast for the fast lane, the ISP finally provides proper speeds

May 13, 2014 09:28 GMT  ·  By
Comcast subscribers are finally starting to receive proper connection speeds to Netflix
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   Comcast subscribers are finally starting to receive proper connection speeds to Netflix

Will you look at that, it looks like it can be done after all! Comcast is now the third fastest US ISP for Netflix streaming.

According to Netflix’s latest ISP speed index, the average streaming speeds of its customers over Comcast have been climbing since the two companies signed a deal. Average speeds have reached 2.77 Mbps, a far cry from the 1.5 Mbps from January.

Back in February, Netflix signed a paid peering agreement with Comcast, basically agreeing to shell out cash in order for its customers to receive the content they wanted at decent speeds. Soon after the ink dried on the paper, Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, came forward and slammed the ISP, saying that it bullied them into signing by throttling the connections.

From there on out, the two companies started a statement war pointing the finger at each other and Comcast adopting a position that basically told Netflix that if it didn’t want to, it could always put a stop to the deal.

The deal between Netflix and Comcast, and later Verizon, was soon used as an example of what happened when there were no Net Neutrality rules set in place and the case has been used to push the FCC towards adopting proper rules that ban ISPs from creating Internet fast lanes.

Under net neutrality rules, such deals would be illegal. In fact, through a recent bill, the European Union has just banned this type of deal and it will implement full net neutrality by the end of next year in all member countries.

The best performance in the United States, with average speeds of 3 Mbps, came from Cablevision, while the second spot is taken by Cox with 2.9 Mbps.

Verizon, a company that Netflix signed a deal with in April, provided users with an average speed of 1.99 Mbps (eighth place). It should be interesting to see how things change in the next few months and how Verizon starts climbing the chart.

The highest averages came from Europe. In fact, the top six best performances in April registered in European countries. Netflix users in The Netherlands had an average 3.49 Mbps when connecting to the video streaming service. Sweden came in second, with a speed of 3.21 Mbps, while Denmark follows closely with 3.17 Mbps.

Norway (3.06 Mbps), Finland (2.88 Mbps) and the UK (2.75 Mbps) take over the next three spots, while Canada follows next. All these countries provide better Internet speeds for Netflix users than the US.

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Comcast subscribers are finally starting to receive proper connection speeds to Netflix
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