The topic exploded earlier this month when an engineer at a Texas security firm collected data showing extremely slow service from his company’s site, which relies on Amazon Web Services, despite robust Internet connections at his home and office. He accused his provider, Verizon FIOS, of slowing the Amazon service deliberately. Verizon denied this, saying congestion was to blame.
Netflix declined to comment to MIT Technology Review, though previously it has not blamed active slowing, or throttling, for the slow speeds experienced by its customers.
In fact, it’s hard to determine whether slowdowns are caused deliberately or just by too much traffic. The Internet is a collection of smaller networks, which connect with one another at junctions often called peering points. Depending on traffic patterns at any given time, some such interconnections can get clogged.
Today, critics complain, it’s hard to monitor this because the arrangements between Internet providers are not regulated, the agreements that govern them are not public, and the data is kept private.
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