News - YouTube video quality tests to name and shame slow ISPs

[zdn1042]

I think this is quite a nice idea. ISPs here in my country can't even provide a steady 1-2mbps connection. I hope this should give them a little kick to at least try to provide better service to their customers.

[watercooled]

Like I said I'm pretty sure it isn't down to the isp I'm on (I know one of the 'owners') and friends on different isps have have had the same issues (different exchanges/locations too).

If I was on virgin (it's not even anywhere near where I live) I would happily blame them due to them having their reputation shall we say, same as if it was talk talk lol.

It's not common for the bottleneck to lie with Youtube/Google's CDN. The ISP you're with may be using a third-party transit provider to connect to Youtube, especially if they're a smaller company (although even smaller ISPs tend to peer openly at exchange points). However, it's still the ISPs responsibility to ensure they're buying enough capacity to cope with demand. There really aren't that many companies to blame besides the ISP.

The fact you've said the problem is solved by using an add-on (possibly using some sort of proxy to bypass bottlenecks), suggests there is, as I said, some congestion problem between the ISP and Google. However it's not uncommon for ISPs to want to blame everyone but themselves...

[Smikis]

hopefully this will force virgin to fix super slow youtube streaming between 19-22~

[TooNice]

tbh, this is fairly ridiculous. Half the issues with internet connectivity have little/nothing to do with your home line speed, and everything to do with the many routing stages the information takes to reach you. In the UK, that means for most people going through openreach's infrastructure, which I'm pretty sure is the biggest limiter in my connection. There's really very little the ISP can do about that.

In that case, every company in the UK would get the same score give or take which is still be fair even though it would mean having to find another "tie breaker". But if only one ISP consistently stands out as being better or worse, then already it would have some value. Of course, it would still only be indicative of the connection to YouTube, but it's still something. Those who really care about ISP overall performance should probably look at a more comprehensive benchmark suite. Well, I can't say I am too worried about YouTube streaming from where I am.. or the general performance of my ISP (brilliant).

[Odeas]

Something like: http://www.measurementlab.net/tools/glasnost
is probably a bit more helpful, and also available now to the UK unlike the google tool.

[watercooled]

Glasnost is a useful tool, but it can't tell you if your ISP is neglecting to maintain links to certain other networks. Of course, the Google/Youtube one only helps with their site too, but it's a start at least, and we may see similar tests from other content providers.