Netflix won't budge in dispute with Verizon over video quality

Netflix defended its error messages to customers that blamed Verizon Communications' network, despite a cease-and-desist notice from the broadband service provider.

In a reply to Verizon, Netflix's General Counsel David Hyman wrote that the message cited by Verizon merely lets Netflix customers know that the Verizon network is crowded. Netflix said it had determined that by calculating the difference between the speed at which traffic was handled during peak and non-peak hours. The video streaming company, however, said that the limited 'transparency' tests that had led to customers getting the error message would end June 16, though the company would evaluate rolling it out more broadly. Regardless of the specific test, Netflix will continue to work on ways to communicate network conditions to its consumers, Hyman wrote, suggesting that the dispute between the two companies is far from settled. Hyman said that Verizon was trying to shift blame for its network problems, citing Verizon's unwillingness to augment its access ports to major Internet backbone providers. He said it was Verizon's responsibility to ensure its customers get the level of service they pay for, by ensuring that the network including the interconnection points have adequate capacity to meet customer's data demands.