Update – 26/03/2020
There will not be any content more than 480p on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar for mobile users till 14 April in India.
Now that the lockdown is in its full effect in India, Social Distancing in the new way of life. People are now spending more time at home and with the majority of people at home, a major source of entertainment becomes all the leading streaming services like Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, and others. And that’s why these streaming services are seeing consumer traffic rise exponentially.
This has ISPs in an unhappy state and that is the reason why Mobile Service Providers in India have reportedly sought the intervention of Telecom Department and Home Ministry to force 12 major video streaming platforms, including Amazon, YouTube, Netflix, and Hotstar, to reduce their video qualities and temporarily remove HD streaming options to ease pressure on the network.
Speaking to ET, Rajan Mathews, the DG of Telecom Industry body, COAI, said: “We’ve written to DoT(Department of Telecommunications) and the Home Ministry that it’s absolutely essential for the video streaming service providers/broadcasters to cooperate with the phone companies and manage their traffic distribution patterns to ensure they don’t strain telco network infrastructure… ”.
According to ET, the carriers asked the video streaming companies to not only migrate to standard definitions from HD for their content but also to suspend video advertisements and pop-ups to ease the network load. While, Netflix and MX Player, said that they are taking steps to reduce bandwidth consumption without compromising on the quality of streaming, there’s no word from other streaming companies on how they are going to address this situation.
Our Suggestion
In these times, it is very essential that we pay attention to everything that the government bodies are saying. Good Internet is very important for workers who are working from home and doctors and other staff who are using video conferencing for awareness. Bad Internet is the last thing we need right now. So, It is better that we ourselves take one step and use standard streaming quality for now and not put stress on the Telecom Networks.
Read More about
Directly in Your Inbox
