Throttling YouTube, Network Neutrality

I just saw a video from EEVBlog about bandwidth throttling by YouTube.

It looks like it's happening. You can check if your ISP is throttling by going to

http://www.youtube.com/my_speed

And then looking at the yellow line. If the line is flat, your ISP may be throttling your bandwidth.

This is why Google is on one side of the Network Neutrality debate, and AT&T and other ISPs are on the other side. A "network neutral" contract would allow YouTube to stream at maximum speed - or whatever size connection YouTube paid for.

The other possibility is "traffic shaping", where the ISP selectively slows down certain websites or services (like Bittorrent) with the effect that other services like email or streaming audio would work more smoothly. Also, customers would be more motivated to purchase a faster level of service because their website performance, for video, would be artificially degraded by their ISP.