Amazon Prime download speed

This is about a strange difficulty with Amazon Prime. Amazon support says they are absolutely not responsible, Amazon never does this to customers.

My Windows 10 professional system (19045.2846) is up to date. Amazon Prime software has been reinstalled.

My computer internet access is via a mobil hotspot from an Android phone. The phone contract allows only 5Mbps download speed for the hotspot, even though, on the phone itself, download speed may be 50Mbps.

The cell phone carrier started carrying a 5G network a while back. They wanted everyone to switch to the new network but many phones are not compatible with the new network. After being told the old network may be discontinued soon, and being offering a rebate on a new phone, I started on the new network with a new 5G phone three weeks ago. The hotspot contract is the same as on the old network and internet speed tests on the computer still run at the contract speed.

Except for Amazon Prime video downloads. I’ve used Amazon Prime for the past year by downloading videos to watch later because 5Mbps doesn’t always give decent streaming. Downloads were at 5Mbps, according to Windows Task Manager. Now, however, on the new network, new phone, Amazon videos are steady at 2Mbps, 60% slower, and of course it takes considerably more time to download a video. A internet speed test run in the browser, even while a video is downloading at 2Mbps, stills shows the contract 5Mbps speed.

I’ve gone over this with the carrier a couple of times, I spoke to Amazon Prime support. I tried all their suggestions. I have run out of ideas to find the source of this problem. It is quite annoying and inconvenient.

AWS servers throttle stuff because of the high demand on them, especiallly video data. Nothing you can do about it. Especially if you only have 5meg download speed.

It could be the ISP (phone carrier) throttling the connection. To rule it out you need to try a good, reputable VPN meant for streaming services and see if the throttling still takes place.

Just to let you and everyone know. 5G (Fifth Generation) is not all that it's cracked up to be. First, the backbone infrastructure has a ways to be built out to support he speed capability. Also, you need to be at a certain distance from a 5G capable tower/antenna to get the full speed. 5 GHz is like REALLY line of site at that frequency... It also has the ability to narrow in on your EXACT location better than 4G.

You could be near a tower and think you're using it but may not. The carrier needs a lease for that tower... The tower you use could be a mile away...

bro67 said:

AWS servers throttle stuff because of the high demand on them, especiallly video data. Nothing you can do about it. Especially if you only have 5meg download speed.

If the Amazon server is delivering at 150Mbps (as verified by other users not using a phone mobil hotspot) it is obviously much faster than a 5Mbps, or even a 50Mbps connection. Is it possible for that server to, at the same time, “throttle” the potential 5mbps download to 2Mbps while delivering 150Mbps downloads to other connections? Why would it bother?

Until “upgrading” to the new improved cellphone network, video download speeds on the computer, via the phone’s mobil hotspot (or USB tethering) were almost always at 5Mbps. Lower download speeds apparently meant heavy cellphone network traffic restricting all my interactions, verified by internet speed tests run on the phone showing less than 5Mbps.

How can the carrier provide the 5Mpbs download speed over the mobil hotspot, as measured in a browser internet speed test on the computer, while at the same time restricting a data download (the video) to 2Mbps. Is that possible? It must be done by software on the phone, no?

I have, multiple times, observed the video download running at a steady 2Mbps, as displayed by Windows Task Manager while an internet speed test in a browser on the same computer says download speed is 5.7Mbps, and an internet speed test in a browser on the phone reports 50Mbps. Apparently the video download speed is being controlled by something at least partially independent of the general bandwidth.

While it is not the norm (the norm is that the video download is the only network traffic, as displayed by Windows Task Manager (process tab)) I have observed the video download running at 2Mbps at the same time a Windows module reports 3.5Mbps.

Since the bandwidth of the carrier signal measures 50Mbps at the phone and the bandwidth on the computer measures 5Mbps, if I download directly onto the phone (useless from my viewpoint), the download should go much faster than on the computer, no? What advantage is there to the carrier to restrict the mobil hotspot output from the phone to 5Mbps?

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F22 Simpilot said:

It could be the ISP (phone carrier) throttling the connection. To rule it out you need to try a good, reputable VPN meant for streaming services and see if the throttling still takes place. ...

If the cellphone carrier is restricting the video download bandwidth to 5Mbps, what can a VPN tell me? How can that bypass carrier controls?

For information perhaps relevant to my inquiry, the new network is labeled 4G/5G. There is no 5G coverage around here nor is there likely to be anytime soon. I purchased a 5G phone only for (hopefully) obsolescence insurance. The 2 year old 4G phone I had been using was fully adequate for all of my interests but (I was told) not compatible with the new network.

bro67 said:

The thing is that the servers are not sending 150mb in bandwidth to every user. You have to share a 10GiB pipe with millions of other users accessing that server. Video streams are variable bandwidths up to 1mb for SD, 5mb for HD, 25mb for UHD. Also just because your ISP lets you pay for 150mbps does not mean that everything you access online is going to be served at that speed. Every connection has their own Upload and Download rates.

This is irrelevant. I am contracted for 5Mbps, not 150 or anything else. I expect 5Mbps. Previously I always got 5Mbps. Now suddenly I get only 2Mbps.

Yes, mobile hotspot tethering can be limited. It is up to your Cell provider to decide how tethering is going to use data, along with the modem chipset in the cellphone which can limit the available bandwidth. Too many items at play when it comes to how FM signals work for data across airwaves.

And how does the chipset discriminate between Amazon source material and any other website? The other stuff is not limited to 2Mbps.

Amazon stuff would not work for streaming if it were limited to 2Mbps. My testing friends got Amazon downloads at 150Mbps. I only want the promised 5Mbps.