BT accused of limiting download speeds for iPlayer

BBC raised concerns

BT Broadband has been accused of limiting download speeds on its cheapest broadband package without informing users.

The throttling appears to target primarily video streaming. Customers who have signed up for 8 megabit per second (Mbps) package can have speed cut to below 1Mbps.

The BBC said it was concerned with the throttling of download speeds as it is affecting the viewing experience for some users. Reportedly, the speeds for BT’s iPlayer users were reduced to around 700kbps at peak times.

In a statement, the BBC said: While customers listening to audio and lower quality video streams would be unaffected, we are concerned that at peak times some customers' higher quality video streams may be interrupted by buffering before falling back to a lower-quality version.”

BT has claimed that its speed limit is detailed on its website. It said: We do limit the speed of all video streaming to 896Kbps on our Option 1 product, during peak times only.

In a statement BT said it was not capping speeds down to 700kbps on iPlayer. It said: We believe there is a real issue that content owners like the BBC need to address and we are currently in discussions with the BBC executive to ensure that our customers get the best possible experience in the future.

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