AT&T May Fix Netflix's Quality Problem Before Verizon Does

Netflix and AT&T are teaming up in a deal that will directly connect the movie-streaming company to the Internet service provider's network. This move will improve video quality for Netflix users.

The deal comes without surprise, as Netflix has been having many problems with Verizon service providing. And it just may be so that AT&T solves Netflix's problem before Verizon does.

"We reached an interconnect agreement with AT&T in May and since then have been working together to provision additional interconnect capacity to improve the viewing experience of our mutual subscribers," a Netflix spokesperson told Ars. "We're now beginning to turn up the connections, a process that should be complete in the coming days."

AT&T confirmed the deal.

If the interconnections are all active within the next few days, AT&T will gain an upper hand over Verizon's network. Verizon and Netflix completed a deal in late April but it Verizon said it would not be providing the full service until the end of the year.

Netflix performance on Verizon FiOS is already poor to begin with. To add to that, it dropped 17 percent in June. Netflix streaming speed on Verizon DSL also dropped.

Netflix performance was also bad on AT&T in June but we might see improvements in august.

Comcast's Netflix performance improved right after the company agreed to a deal in April, but this is mostly because Comcast and Netflix technical teams worked together months prior to the contract being signed on improving the video-streamers performance. More than 300 10-gigabit Ethernet ports were set up in 10 different ports around the country so that it could carry Netflix traffic onto the Comcast network.

The deals don't give Netflix priority over choosing one application over the other after traffic enters the ISP network and then towards consumers. What it does do is it ensures Netflix successfully crosses through congested links between ISPs and the Internet.