AGB, I dont think you are far out on that assertion. Streaming uses UDP transmission as opposed to TCP, UDP is essentially connectionless . A good analogy is someone just lobbing a ball over their shoulder hoping that the recipient will catch it. They have no knowledge whether the ball was caught or not, but they will then lob another one and then another hoping that enough balls get through to keep the recipient going with catches. TCP on the other hand is slower but much more robust, would be used for online commerce where its imperative that the packet gets through intact and in the right order, keeping with the analogy. The bowler is facing forward and he sees whether the numbered ball is caught or not, further to that the recipient will throw a confirmatory ball back in the form of a 'yes ive got it' receipt. The recipient will also put the balls in the right order in case one overtook another on the way So yes if you send UDP too quickly over a slow channel, the buffer may find itself empty with the resultant dead air. slowing the bitrate down, would maybe stop the dropouts but audio quality would then suffer.