AT&T Fires Back at T-Mobile on Netflix Throttling
AT&T responded to T-Mobile comments Tuesday that AT&T and Verizon had to know Netflix was throttling its own transmissions to their subscribers (see 1604050053). An AT&T spokesman said T-Mobile CEO John Legere originally accused AT&T and Verizon of throttling the…
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Netflix transmissions until it became clear Netflix was responsible. “We're not going to comment on this because we're still waiting for Legere's apology for falsely accusing our company two weeks ago,” the AT&T spokesman said. “Legere is obviously correct,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. “There is no way that Verizon and AT&T didn’t notice that Netflix downloads on their mobile network was using a far smaller amount of bandwidth than Netflix downloads on their wireline network.” But Calabrese also said he was frustrated about complaints that Netflix doesn't fall under FCC net neutrality rules. “How Netflix wants to transmit its content, as one of millions of edge providers, is between Netflix and its subscribers,” he said. AT&T and Verizon had to know what Netflix was doing, said Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge. “AT&T does seem to be reveling in its role as the offended innocent, falsely accused by T-Mobile of throttling Netflix when it was Netflix deliberately reducing the speed to AT&T's network to avoid giving AT&T subscribers unexpected overages,” Feld said. “I can see the allure. But I wouldn't overplay the role. As just about everyone agrees, this doesn't actually have anything to do with net neutrality.”