If you’ve ever noticed a YouTube or Netflix video slowing down on your phone, even when you have excellent network coverage, your data might be throttled. A recent study by Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst found that AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon have all artificially slowed down online videos. If you’re unsure of how to tell whether your phone carrier is slowing down your data, you can test it with the Wehe app.
Wehe’s tests to show you the speed of certain apps, like Netflix and YouTube, compared to the other apps running on your phone. A difference between the two typically indicates that your Internet service provider has slowed down the app in question.
This app is developed by researchers from Northeastern University and The University of Massachusetts Amherst. By running these tests, you will also help create a public database of carrier behavior worldwide. This can help you decide which carrier to use in the future, based on the performance they give to your favorite apps.
I ran it in South Africa on Afrihost fibre and Vodacom LTE and it reported no differentiation for Afrihost but with Vodacom it reported differentiation on Spotify (5.9Mbps throttled to 2.2Mbps).
#netneutrality #throttling #diagnostics
#^How to tell if your carrier is throttling your streaming videos
If your YouTube or Netflix videos are streaming too slowly, your carrier might be to blame.