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Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by abjKT26nO8 on Friday March 20, 2020 @05:50AM (#22636316)
You're describing an issue specific to US ISPs. It doesn't apply to Europe. From what I read even before the pandemic the US ISPs offered rather crappy services. In Europe, particularly in Poland, I don't have and haven't heard about anyone having any issues with connectivity right now, even though the country is in lockdown, schools and universities are closed, restaurants work only in delivery/take-out mode, companies switched to remote work, ... And still no issues at home nor at work.

Don't make decisions about the European infrastructure based on American problems.

Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by v77 on Friday March 20, 2020 @11:22AM (#22638261)
This article is literally about the EU asking Netflix to reduce bandwidth in Europe.
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by abjKT26nO8 on Saturday March 21, 2020 @08:54AM (#22646187)
And the comment I replied to was "literally" about problems encountered in US (Seattle is in US FYI).
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by nicoburns on Friday March 20, 2020 @06:29AM (#22636468)
Having issues with the internet here in the UK today. Unsurprising given that half of the world has suddenly discovered video calling. Mobile network seems more stable.
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by Cthulhu_ on Friday March 20, 2020 @07:20AM (#22636655)
In my country (NL), a lot of the backbone of both cable TV and internet on a street level has been replaced with fiber already; I can imagine that in the US, due to the scale, this process is lower. Doesn't have to be fiber-to-the-home, 20mbit should be enough for everyone for example.

I haven't had any problems with my internet (I do have fiber straight into my house, wired network on my laptop, fast.com reports 600 Mb/s), but Skype, which we use for meetings, has been pretty shit in terms of sound quality.

Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by slac on Friday March 20, 2020 @08:24AM (#22636959)
20mbit is not enough if you have kids with retina display ipads looking at youtube!
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by abraae on Friday March 20, 2020 @06:24AM (#22636446)
I work virtually from New Zealand with my colleague in Lombardy Italy. Today I noticed some more serious degradation in video call quality for the first time.

But mostly I'm amazed how well the internet is working given the circumstances.

Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by pawelk on Friday March 20, 2020 @06:11AM (#22636397)
I'm in Poland as well and I've been working remotely for over three years. Since the lock down started I feel that everything is a bit slower and less stable, but I haven't experienced major issues during usual work hours doing work-related things (maybe except MS Teams acting up). However Netflix is broken most of the time during afternoon hours (when I want to keep kids occupied with cartoons for an hour or so to get things done). Luckily other streaming services work fine.
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by terramex on Friday March 20, 2020 @06:28AM (#22636461)
In contrast, my internet connection finally started working great since lockdowns started. I suspect my ISP (small local company in central Poland) got some additional bandwidth or somehow finally fixed their infrastructure when they saw increased internet usage among their clients.
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by op00to on Friday March 20, 2020 @07:53PM (#22642962)
It depends. If there is competition, things can be good. I live in a place in the US where there are 3 broadband providers, and I pay far less than $100 for a symmetric gigabit connection, and I get it too.