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Edge video providers like Netflix are the source...

Edge video providers like Netflix are the source of “persistent congestion” that leads to buffering and fuzzy HD pictures, said NCTA in a blog post Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1qwno4N). Although failure in home networks, ISPs and interconnection points like a content delivery…

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network can also cause congestion, three reports released last week suggest the edge provider is most often at fault, NCTA said. The FCC 2014 Measuring Broadband America report (http://fcc.us/UOiwxo) (CD June 19 p7) “found that, on average, almost all ISPs are meeting or beating advertised speeds,” NCTA said. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology preliminary report (http://bit.ly/1o3xJnS) (CD June 19 p9) measuring Internet congestion found no “widespread congestion among the U.S. providers at their interconnection points in the core of the network,” NCTA said. A third report, from NetForecast, found that Netflix’s analysis of ISP performance included factors ISPs did not control, NCTA said. “Things like choices made by the end-user, available capacity or performance of the Netflix servers.” With the reports eliminating other factors, and assuming that most home networks perform correctly, the reports show that companies like Netflix are responsible for congestion that affects video streaming, NCTA said.