Unitymedia drops down Netflix’s ISP Speed Index

Unitymedia Kabel was among the major movers in Netflix’s latest ISP Speed Index, with the Germany operator’s average web speed falling to 3.18 Mbps in January.

Netflix noted that the internet service provider, which had ranked at the top since Netflix launched service in that country, dropped thee places in the month to eighth place. Its average speed dropped from 3.79 Mbps in December and a high of 4.17 Mbps last August.

Kabel Deutschland remained the best-performing operator in Germany in January with an average speed of 4.03 Mbps, while Telekom, O2 and Vodafone Germany each climbed one place to fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.

In the Netherlands, Caiway and Ziggo held their respective number one and two rankings but KPN climbed a spot to number three, overtaking ZeelandNet.

Similarly in Belgium Numericable climbed a spot to overtake Telenet in third place, while Proximus and Voo stayed steady at one and two with average speeds of 4.27 Mbps and 4.00 Mbps.

Austria had both the fastest and slowest average web speeds in Europe with number one operator Liwest averaging 4.36 Mpbs and sixth place A1 offering just 1.88 Mbps.

In the UK, Spain, Denmark and Switzerland there was no change in operator rankings with Virgin, Euskaltel, Waoo! and ImproWare all keeping the number one spots.

In the US, Verizon – FiOS remained the number one ISP with an average speed of 3.88 Mbps, followed by Cox and Cablevision, which held their spots at number two and three respectively.

Notably, Bright House fell five spots in the US rankings in January to ninth place with an average speed of 3.53 Mbps, while Time Warner Cable fell two places to tenth with an average speed of 3.39 Mbps. Suddenlink and AT&T U-Verse both climbed two spots, to seventh and eighth in the rankings.

The Netflix ISP Speed Index is a measure of prime time Netflix performance on a particular ISP and not a measure of overall performance for other services or data that may travel across the specific ISP network.

Faster Netflix performance generally means better picture quality, quicker start times and fewer interruptions, according to the company.