This kind of test has been discussed at Ars Technica in the last few days. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/verizo... It doesn't conclusively prove anything since the Netflix and VPN traffic take different paths, only one of which may be congested. In particular, I suspect the encryption has nothing to do with it. Ultimately I think this is the same old problem: http://www.internap.com/2010/12/02/peering-disputes-comcast-... but as Netflix increases bitrate and number of subscribers it gets worse.