[wplug] Verizon vs Comcast

[Florin Manolache]

Hi everybody,

I know this is not a Linux specific question, but I think this is a
good place to dip into some expertise.

The problem: I am working at CMU and use Verizon FiOS at home (50Mbps download).
During the late evenings the download speed to CMU goes under 1Mbps,
sometimes much lower.
Bandwidth tests show that locally in the Verizon network the access
speed is fine (around 35-40Mbps) but once the traffic gets out of
Verizon's network it is throttled down.
Verizon blames Cogent for that, Cogent blames Verizon, and the end
user is the one taking the hit.
This is not only my problem, but all my colleagues on Verizon FiOS
experience it.
Also, not only the traffic from CMU gets throttled down, but a lot of
other sites, Netflix, YouTube, etc, basically everything that follows
the Verizon-Cogent route.

Potential solution: some people claim that the problem doesn't exist
from the Comcast network.
Even if the bandwidth is lower than the one offered by Verizon, the
claim is that Comacat's bandwidth is sustainable at the order of about
20Mbps even during the evenings.
If I could check that, I'll switch to Comcast and advice all my
Verizon FiOS colleagues to do so.

I would like to hear your opinions, thoughts, and experiences
regarding this issue.
If you have Comcast please try some bandwidth tests around 9-10pm and
let me know the results.
For the bandwidth tests I was using http://testmy.net/ or a 20MB
download from one of my servers at
http://www.math.cmu.edu/~florin/SpeedTest/r20m


Thank you very much,
Florin Manolache