ISP Throttling – The Truth

What is ISP Throttling?

ISP throttling is when your Internet Service Provider intentionally restricts the amount of bandwidth you can use. The restriction might be ‘across the board’ where everything gets slowed down. Or it might only happen when you’re trying to do certain activities.

ISP throttling can happen at home, on guest wi-fi, on your mobile device, or even at work. It just depends on which service provider is limiting your bandwidth.

Why Do ISPs Throttle Bandwidth?

ISPs can throttle bandwidth for a variety of reasons. In many cases, it comes down to what you use the internet for.

For example, if you’ve been downloading or streaming a lot of videos recently, the ISP may choose to restrict your bandwidth in order to manage traffic. You may also experience it during times of high network congestion.

But it isn’t always the ISP’s fault. For example: If lots of people all want to watch the hottest new TV show that just dropped on Netflix, they might throttle the bandwidth to prevent the servers from crashing.

Another more straightforward example is an undesired or illegal activity. If someone’s been torrenting the latest blockbuster, and your ISP suspects them of doing it, they can restrict the bandwidth to make it harder for the pirates to download and distribute that content.

The reasons behind ISP throttling can also depend on where you live. Net neutrality- when ISPs are prohibited from throttling an individual’s bandwidth under their service plan’s guidelines just because they are using certain services, may or may not be enforced.

ISP Throttling History

For example, in the US, Comcast admitted to ISP throttling in 2008, targeting people who were using such sites as BitTorrent to transfer illegally obtained copyrighted material. The FCC, who first filed a complaint against Comcast’s practice in 2007, then ordered Comcast to cease this to maintain net neutrality. However, this was overruled in a follow-up court case in 2010 where Comcast argued against the decision, and the Court of Appeals took their side. True net neutrality laws were not enforced in the US until 2015 which banned targeting certain users’ bandwidth over others.

Unfortunately, this discrimination-free era did not last, as the FCC repealed its net neutrality laws in 2018. This had knock-on effects including that ISPs are now free to throttle your bandwidth after going over your data cap. This can happen automatically, so it’s worth double-checking your ISP’s data plan if you suspect you are being throttled. Examples of ISPs with data caps include AT&T and Xfinity, whereas Frontier and Spectrum do not have data caps.

Paid prioritization- companies paying ISPs to throttle rival companies’ apps and websites in favor of their own- can also be a reason. For example, in the US, from 2018 to 2019, it was found that AT&T throttled Netflix 74% of the time, but didn’t throttle Amazon Prime Video. T-Mobile was guilty of this, too- throttling Amazon Prime Video 51% of the time, but they didn’t throttle others. This hardly seems like fair play.

The EU agrees. Under current EU rules, paid prioritization is forbidden. However, your ISP can still throttle your bandwidth in the EU if they suspect illegal activity- torrenting, for example- or if they need to manage high network congestion. But even then, they can only do that if they promise to treat everyone’s bandwidths equally (outside of government requirements for national security). It is also illegal to block or slow down traffic after someone goes over their allocated data cap in the EU unless the user opts into such a limit rather than choosing to pay for overages.

How Can I Check if My Bandwidth is Being Throttled?

The most straightforward way to check if you are being subjected to ISP throttling based on content, without having to check data plans or calling your ISP’s customer service line, is to run a bandwidth throttling test.

First, you’ll need to get hold of an ethernet cable and use it to connect your device to your router. This will give a more accurate representation of your internet speed as wireless connections can be subject to interference.

Then, just fire up a speed or bandwidth throttling test website and let the program calculate your upload and/or download speeds, depending on the website you’re using. Make sure you search for the most local bandwidth throttling test site possible. The numbers will change somewhat erratically at first, but they will eventually level out and you will be left with your internet speeds displayed on the screen.

Great! You have a baseline. You’re halfway done. So, what next?

Now, this next part requires either a private node network like Hoody, a Virtual Private Network, or a VPN for short.

Using Hoody or a VPN will connect your device to a new entry and exit node remotely, using their IP addresses instead of the true destination of your internet traffic. More importantly, it puts all of the traffic into one encrypted tunnel, so your ISP can’t see the different types of packets flowing through.

This also allows you to, for example, access content on streaming services that may not be available in your region like Netflix or Hulu, conceal your IP address, and in some cases prevent your device from being detected while using public WiFi.

This is all well and good, but what does this have to do with ISP throttling?

I’m glad you asked! See, given that Hoody or a VPN hides what you do online from your ISP via your tunnel to the private server, they can’t determine what you’re downloading or which streaming sites you’re visiting. This means, for example, if your ISP has taken money from a streaming service to throttle the speeds of its rivals, you won’t get caught in the crossfire. Your ISP can’t slow down Netflix if it can’t detect you using Netflix. So, all you need to do now is run the speed test again, but this time while protected.

Try all of the services that you tried before, just to make sure that the problem is on the ISP side and not the hosting side. If your upload and download speed results are significantly higher through Hoody or the VPN than without it, then it’s likely your bandwidth is being throttled by your ISP based on the content you’re consuming.

Why Can Bandwidth Throttling Tests Only Detect Content-Based Throttling?

It’s important to note that private tunnels like Hoody or VPNs can only bypass ISP throttling in certain instances. While they can help with getting around paid prioritization troubles, it won’t have any effect on your speeds if your ISP is only throttling your bandwidth based on how much of it you use.

For example: If you’re streaming content 24/7 or downloading lots of movies, then your ISP will see a large amount of traffic and may choose to throttle your bandwidth. This is a fair use issue and is included in many ISP contracts to make sure a few ‘power users’ don’t abuse cheap service plans when they should be paying premium prices for upgraded bandwidth.

Hoody or VPNs won’t work here as the ISP will just be looking at the raw amount of data usage. They can still count your total ‘flow’ through an encrypted tunnel, they just can’t probe the contents. So, if you or someone on your network has a massive streaming or torrenting habit, ease off on it and your ISP might just let your bandwidth breathe easy.

Note that in some countries, states, or territories, content-based throttling is illegal. If you detect it in one of those countries, record everything you can. Then send the evidence as a complaint to the government watchdog in charge of ISP regulation. There have also been class action lawsuits as recently as 2021 against illegal or non-contractual ISP throttling, so be on the lookout for those if you want compensation.

ISP Throttling In Europe

In a contrast, let’s look at the EU’s rules for bandwidth throttling. The regulator for Internet communications in Europe, BEREC, created rules that strictly enforce an open Internet and Net Neutrality as a standard. As such, ISP throttling can only take place under extreme circumstances.

One example of EU ISP throttling in recent years was during the Coronavirus pandemic. For one month, ISPs were allowed to throttle bandwidth to make sure that work from home arrangements could be made for the hundreds of millions of people impacted by the pandemic. YouTube and NetFlix agreed to reduce video streaming quality to ‘standard’ definition for the duration.

That’s pretty much what it takes to violate net neutrality in the EU - a state of emergency.

But what about the U.K.?

Brexit made sure that it’s no longer a part of the EU. The pandemic was an excuse for extensive net neutrality reviews from OfCom. The fear is that open Internet standards will be the next victim of the Brexit fiasco, another money grab by those who shamelessly profiteered from the tragedy of the past two years. It’s not like the telecoms are exactly hurting for money. But they seem to be willing to violate peoples’ rights to grab just a little bit more.

If this comes to pass, things will look a lot bleaker. Without Net Neutrality, every Internet user in the U.K. will be looking for ways to mask their traffic types, so that they don’t get throttled. This is where privacy software such as Hoody shines. In addition to masking your web browser’s fingerprint and making it more difficult to uniquely track online, it filters all traffic through a private encrypted network. The ISPs will have no idea what to filter or throttle.

BT and other heavy hitters will continue to throw media money at this. They’ve been spreading propaganda throughout the pandemic’s duration. Their idea of ‘reform’ is simple: Allow them to charge for Internet fast lanes in the U.K. They claim that the rules promote a ‘concentration of services’ rather than diversity. Ironic, since they’re currently the industry’s 800-pound gorilla.

Net Neutrality in India

Despite their spotty record on Internet privacy, in 2016 India enshrined one of the strongest Net Neutrality laws in the world. With that move, half a billion people were granted open Internet bandwidth standards.

In 2018, a joint open standards paper was published by TRAI and BEREC. This put India and the EU on the same page as far as the future of the Internet ‘fast lanes’ and priority sites assigned by ISPs. The only exceptions to the non-priority rule are for infrastructure, national emergencies, and life-saving (ambulance and remote surgery for example) or safety-critical technologies such as medical IoT devices, self-driving cars, and the like.

Summing It All Up

Net Neutrality will remain a hot topic on many continents, and for many years to come. The rule of thumb is simple: If your country or region doesn’t have strong Net Neutrality laws, you should be using Hoody or a VPN to hide your Internet traffic types. If you don’t, you’re risking severe ISP throttling that could bring your Internet speed to a crawl.

At least this article has left you better prepared. Now that you know about bandwidth throttling tests and typical ISP behavior, we hope that some of your slow connection issues have been explained.

Consider looking at political candidates that will fight for a free and open Internet, assuming that it’s safe to express yourself politically wherever you live. We know that isn’t always the case… but that’s yet another reason to take a serious look at privacy software.

Please stay vigilant out there!