Why Verizon won’t solve its Netflix problem as soon as Comcast

When Netflix agreed to pay Verizon in “paid peering” deal, it seemed natural to assume that Verizon subscribers would start getting better quality videos within days or weeks. But Netflix performance got worse on Verizon in the month after the paid peering deal was announced. The reason is that the technical teams at Comcast and Netflix spent months working together to lay the groundwork for direct network connections even before the companies' lawyers were done arguing over money. As a result, the engineering teams were able to set the connections up almost immediately after the deal was signed. Verizon, on the other hand, seems not to have done any major technical work until after signing its deal with Netflix.