Now that interconnection agreements with the four top U.S. Internet service providers are in place and with no new spats grabbing the public's attention, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) may have entered a period of détente. Average streaming speeds for subscribers on the FiOS network rose two places on the SVOD provider's August Speed Index, to 2.41 Mbps.
But it was AT&T (NYSE: T), with whom Netflix signed an interconnect in May, that saw the biggest improvement. U-verse streaming leaped seven places on the index, averaging 2.61 Mbps and coming in as the seventh fastest last-mile provider for Netflix streaming.
Cablevision's (NYSE: CVC) Optimum service remained in the lead, averaging 3.11 Mbps in August.
Other risers on the index: AT&T's DSL services rose two places to 13 at 1.81 Mbps; Mediacom rose two places to number six, at 2.67 Mbps; and Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) nudged upward a spot to fourth place at 2.90 Mbps.
Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) slipped two spots on the index, to eighth place at 2.59 Mbps; however, that's much higher than its July average of only 2.15 Mbps. The cable operator signed an interconnect agreement with Netflix in June.
Netflix bases its index on data from its more than 50 million subscribers worldwide and is an average of streaming performance during prime time on listed ISPs' networks. Therefore the speed index isn't an indicator of an ISP's actual broadband speeds.
U.S. Netflix users' average streaming speeds are still slow compared to other countries, ranking 11th, with total average speeds of 2.67 Mbps--just ahead of Brazil and Chile. The Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark have the three top average streaming speeds in countries where Netflix operates.
For more:
- see this Netflix blog post
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