Faster Streaming Helps Keep This Company One Step Ahead

The Wicked Witch of ISPs asks: "Mirror, Mirror on the wall, which network is the fastest streamer of them all?" The Mirror responds: "If your name is AT&T, it ain't you."

Streaming-video services need big pipes to dispense all those bytes as quickly as possible to media-hungry consumers. So it is crucial for companies such as Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) -- especially since it is trying to wean itself off its dependence on mailed-out DVDs -- to find out which Internet service providers can deliver the goods the quickest. To learn which indeed is fastest, Netflix ran the major ISPs through its speed trap and released the results last week.

I found the findings a mixture of "well, I expected that" and "how can that be?" It won't surprise most people that the fastest ISP uses fiber-optic technology, but it may be a bit of a shock that the slowest of the fiber/cable ISPs also uses fiber. The six other companies in that category all use cable.

Following are the results of the cable and fiber ISP tests. I have to point out that I had to extrapolate the speed figures from the Netflix graphic that was posted on its "Tech Blog" Web page. Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) FiOS fiber-optic network is the speed demon here. But how can AT&T's fiber network be the slowest of the group? That's a head-scratcher.
 

Source: Speeds extrapolated from Netflix graphic.

Quite a bit further behind came the DSL deliverers. Included is Clearwire's (Nasdaq: CLWR) wireless broadband service, called Clear, which uses that carrier's WiMAX 4G technology. Followers of the Sprint Nextel and Clearwire saga know that Clearwire is trying to upgrade its 4G wireless services to LTE, a much faster technology than WiMAX. Funding is the major problem here for Clearwire.
 

Source: Speeds extrapolated from Netflix graphic.

Bragging rights
It's a dog-eat-dog ISP world. Just witness the Verizon FiOS vs. Comcast Xfinity wars. I wouldn't be surprised if these speed figures show up in a FiOS commercial soon. It wouldn't shock me either if somehow Verizon tried to use its bragging rights in the ISP world to give it an edge in its wireless competition with AT&T.

But the speed testing probably won't help Netflix restore investor confidence after its recent gaffes involving splitting off its DVD-rental service and its streaming-video services. Something like that doesn't happen quickly.

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