In spite of the fact that the spike in internet traffic has been lower than expected over the COVID-19 lockdown in India, Netflix and YouTube continue to suppress video quality even on fixed line networks. We found that YouTube does not allow for streaming higher than a resolution of 480p on mobile devices, even when connected to WiFi (85% of Indians access YouTube on mobile). Similarly, Netflix does not stream its highest available bitrate for any title. Patriot Act, for instance, maxes out at 2.9Mbps for 1080p, but goes all the way up to 5.6Mbps in the US. These restrictions are being rolled back in Europe, a continent with much more data use per citizen than India. We have reached out to Netflix and YouTube to find out why these restrictions continue even on fixed line networks. These restrictions first started…
