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Internet providers continue to intentionally slow down speeds for additional money
July 31, 2025
Over the last few years, Verizon and AT&T have shown a complete inability to act as an internet gatekeeper without engaging inanti-competitive behavior throughfakeridiculouspatheticstatements aboutnetwork safety and other explanations such as:
A few years ago, Level 3, a network operator,engaged in a traffic interconnection feud with Comcast. When the interconnections aren’t upgraded, it can lead tocongestion and dropped packetsresulting in slow and buffering internet speeds.
Comcastplayed stupid and insisted that this was a simple, run of the mill peering dispute, while Level 3 declared that Comcast was really violating net neutrality by forcing companies to pay yet another toll in order to connect to the Comcast network. Eventually a confidential deal was struck and Level 3 quiet.
Recently, Comcastsigned an interconnection agreement with Netflix. Therefore, a company such as Level 3, became a bit nervous about losing business. So nervous that Level 3 spoke out in March about large incumbent ISPs intentionally letting peering links saturate in agame of chicken designed to net themmore money. Therefore, consumers who have had the pleasure of paying some of thehighest internet rates in the worldwith average-at-best service, are then put in the middle of this disagreement in the form of strangled video connectivity.
Another significant issue seems to be the sheer lack of transparency in these types of agreements. AsKarl Bode at DSLReports notes:
Fast forward to today andArs Technica alerts us that Level 3and Cogent, another network operator, are now claiming that six consumer broadband providers have continued to allow a state of “permanent congestion” by refusing to upgrade peering connections for the past year.
In ablog post today, Level 3 VP Mark Taylor wrote:
Taylor didn’t name these companies but did make sure to point out in a graph how terrible the customer service rankings were for the unnamed companies that were intentionally letting their networks worsen.
Of course, the internet providers say they are not slowing down our speeds. Why would they lie?It’s isn’t as if they had lied to us before about throttling speeds!
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