NETFLIX AND VERIZON DUKE IT OUT

Netflix and Verizon have blamed each other for the slow connections that have resulted in their mutual customers having to endure frequent buffering interruptions of Netflix movies and TV shows. When those interruptions occur, Netflix now posts an error message stating that “The Verizon network is crowded right now.” But on Wednesday Verizon struck back, calling the claim “a PR stunt” and “not only inaccurate, it is deliberately misleading.” It blamed the “crowding” on “the connection that Netflix has chosen to use to reach Verizon’s network.” That Netflix connection, called “paid peering,” however, was supposed to improve the experience of Verizon’s customers, and Netflix, under a recent agreement, is reluctantly paying extra in order to use it. On Wednesday it said that after it began paying to use a direct connection to Comcast, “they put online a lot more bandwidth rather quickly.” A spokesman for Verizon told CNET.com on Wednesday that his company has “a peering relationship with Netflix that Netflix doesn’t like.” So who really is to blame for those service interruptions? It’s hard to tell, commented TheVerge.com. “The real problem is a lack of transparency around the causes of congestion and the cost of upgrading the infrastructure,” it said.