US-based video streaming firm Netflix Inc. yesterday agreed to reduce its traffic on the Philippines’ telecommunications network by 25 percent as requested by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to ease data congestion for the duration of the enhanced community quarantine.
NTC requested Netflix to work with the government and its telecoms partners to help free up bandwidth as the increased demand by subscribers may risk overloading network capacity during the quarantine period.
“Data consumption is expected to surge due to the work from home arrangements as well as increased government, private and education demands,” NTC said.
In response, Netflix agreed to the measure.
Netflix said it has developed a way to reduce its traffic on telecoms networks by 25 percent while maintaining the quality of service. It has been introduced in Italy and Spain and is now being deployed across the rest of Europe and the United Kingdom.
Netflix added its consumers should continue to get the quality that comes with their plan — be it ultra-high, high or standard definition. Netflix’s move will provide significant relief to congested networks for the next 30 days.
“Put simply the action we’ve taken maintains the full range of video resolutions. So whether you paid for Ultra-High Definition (UHD), High Definition (HD), or Standard Definition (SD), that is what you should continue to get (depending on the device you are using),” Ken Florance, Netflix vice president for content delivery, said of the video quality.
“If you are particularly tuned into video quality you may notice a very slight decrease in quality within each resolution. But you will still get the video quality you paid for,” Florance added.
The traffic reduction was started in Europe.
“Our goal is simple: to maintain the quality of service for our members, while supporting ISPs who are facing unprecedented strain on their networks,” Florance said.
Prior to enhanced community quarantine in Luzon, Netflix has unveiled its cheaper mobile plan in the Philippines as part of its strategy to attract the price conscious market.
Netflix offers its cheapest plan at P149 per month, giving members access to video streaming over the smartphone or tablet device only.
This mobile plan is in addition to the basic, standard and premium plans priced P369, P459 and P549 per month, respectively.
Netflix is the world’s leading streaming entertainment service with over 167 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages.
