Netflix has admitted that it has been throttling its video stream service for AT&T and Verizon users for more than five years now.

The popular provider of streaming movies and TV series has been capping the video streams at 600kbps that would work for a pixelated 360p video. The company said they are doing this to save the data cap for AT&T and Verizon customers. However, they are not doing the same thing with the customers of Sprint and T-Mobile because the carriers offer ore consumer-friendly policies.

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Netflix has been an avid supporter of net neutrality which opposes mobile and broadband service providers from throttling or speeding data from certain websites, and that traffic on the Internet should be treated equally. It also means the internet service provider should not create fast lanes that will require companies such as Netflix to pay an additional fee to speed up delivery of content.

It is worth noting that net neutrality rules approved a year ago by the Federal Communications Commission (FTC) do not apply to content companies like Netflix because the company is not an internet service provider.

“We believe restrictive data caps are bad for consumers and the Internet in general, creating a dilemma for those who increasingly rely on their mobile devices for entertainment, work and more. So in an effort to protect our members from overage charges when they exceed mobile data caps, our default bitrate for viewing over mobile networks has been capped globally at 600 kilobits per second. It’s about striking a balance that ensures a good streaming experience while avoiding unplanned fines from mobile providers,” said Anne Marie, a member of the Netflix communications team, in a blog post.

Netflix plans to roll out a data saver feature for the member to help them controlling their data usage when streaming on mobile networks. It would allow them to either stream more video under a smaller data plan, or increase their video quality if they have a higher data plan. The data save feature will be launched in May.

Tagsnetflix, Data cap, verizon, AT&T, Netflix video throttles