IOS AVPlayer is too slow when streaming online video

I am using AVPlayer to play online video content. The server supports RFC 2616 byte ranges. This is because the AVPlayer takes too long to play. For 1 GB video (duration = 1 hour 45 minutes), it takes 1 min-2 min to start playing. I notice that the searches work pretty well after this. It takes 15 seconds for Android media player to play the same video by default.

AVPlayer seems to be loading chunks in different parts of the media space for better search support. But I want the video to start as soon as possible. Is it possible to configure AVPlayer for faster play?