I knew it was a server side issue because my girlfriend and I play side-by-side and I can see both our monitors stutter at the exact same times....
so this makes sense.
Looks like DICE is trying to cheap out on the servers, which explains why they removed Breakthrough 128 because that mode for sure requires the most powerful servers of the 4 modes.
I knew these changes were all about the $$$$$. DICE trying to minimize costs because they've accepted the game is a failure and want to minimize expenses as much as possible.
Always follow the money with decisions like these. Greedy, corporate exec heads pressuring DICE to reduce overhead. And this is how they do it. Cut game modes and cheap out on the servers. It's one of the main reasons we will not get a server browser; DICE doesn't wanna pay for it.