In September 2014 word leaked that Verizon planned to shut down their Netflix competitor. The joint deal with RedBox called RedBox Instant never gained traction like Verizon had hoped. Most social media for RedBox instant ended in June and July 2014 and in August FIOS was in last place.
Since that last place finish in August, Verizon FIOS has been the fastest ISP in the monthly Netflix report. Little has been made of this change but it makes you wonder how they jumped 9 other ISPs in just 1 month.
Every ISP has increased in speed pointing to some backbone improvements, but the greatest change in this chart was Verizon FIOS.
Changes like this point to why many demand Net Neutrality. If it was the Verizon/Netflix deal, end of RedBox Instant, or some other factor clearly something changed and resulted in greatly improved performance.