Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) launched Wednesday a new website called Fast.com, to measure Internet download speeds. It can be useful for users who want to check download speeds, when they are having streaming problems.
The design of Fast.com shows a minimalistic interface, which results very easy to use. David Fullagar, vice president of content delivery architecture at the company, said that the new Internet speed calculator uses Netflix servers.
Results revealed by Fast.com should be similar to those presented by other services such as speedtest.net. The new tool is different to the Netflix ISP Speed Index. The latter, measures average monthly speeds of Netflix streams during congested hours, explained Fullagar.
“We all want a faster, better Internet, yet Internet speeds vary greatly and can be affected by other users on your network or congestion with your Internet service provider,” said Fullagar in a statement published Wednesday.
Fast.com is available worldwide for all devices at no cost. Other sites such a speedtest.net can offer more details about Internet connections. For instance, data about ping, latency, jitter and upload speed.
The new Netflix service is directed to users who are not experts in the matter of Internet speeds.
“Fast.com It is not a network engineer’s analysis and diagnostic suite,” said Netflix in the session of questions and answers.
To make a calculus, Fast.com carries out a series of downloads from Netflix servers. The American provider of streaming content said people may not be receiving the speed they pay for. If that occurs, people can ask their Internet service provider for detailed results about their connections.
Netflix is responsible for more than 36 percent of all internet downloads in the United States
The market of video streaming services in the U.S. has been growing massively during the last four years. Tech brands such as Apple, Google and Amazon are continuously presenting new hardware and software innovations, for what is called “the new age of TV.”
Netflix is the most popular video streaming service in North America. It obtained revenues of $6.77 billion last year. Just in the U.S., it occupies about 36.5% of all downstream Internet bandwidth during peak periods.
In total, it occupies more bandwidth than Youtube, Amazon and Hulu, combined together, during the same period. The service has 40 million subscribers in the U.S., who spend around 10 billion hours using the service every month, said the company.
Netflix has introduced new controls to help users control how much data they use
On early May, the company introduced a new tool to help users set up how much cellular data they want to use when streaming video from Netflix. Default adjustments will allow subscribers to stream about 3 hours of movies, per gigabyte of data.
“In terms of bitrates, that currently amounts to about 600 Kilobits per second. Our testing found that, on cellular networks, this setting balances good video quality with lower data usage to help avoid exceeding data caps and incurring overage fees,” said Eddy Wu, director of product innovation at Netflix.
New features are available on the Netflix app for iOS and Android. Users can select “App Settings” from the menu, and pick “Cellular Data Usage,” in order to choose how much data they want to use while downloading movies or TV shows.
Source: Netflix (Press Release)