Net Neutrality? Load of bollocks! Virgin Media
p2pnet news | Freedom:- The idea that ISPs should deliver content, regardless of type, at equal speeds is a, “load of bollocks”.
Who says?
Neil Berkett, Virgin Media’s new boss.
So how should things be done?
Introduce paid-for traffic shaping, he says, according to the Telegraph.
“His comments, made in a recent interview with the Royal Television Society’s Television magazine, come at a difficult time for the internet industry,” says the story.
“Internet television catch-up services, such as the BBC iPlayer, are reportedly placing a strain on the broadband network, slowing down overall network speeds because of high demand for the bandwidth-hungry service.”
Perhaps they ought to follow the example of Canada’s three major ISPs, Bell Canada, Rogers and Videotron, with the largest, Bell Canada, to the fore.
Just throttle the BBC.
No worries.
To date,UK regulator Ofcom, “as made little comment on the network neutrality debate,” says Digitral Spy, adding:
“In 2007, long before the current iPlayer discussions, the then Ofcom policy chief Douglas Scott indicated that the regulator planned a ‘hands off’ approach to the issue. Scott has since departed the regulator for Channel 4.”
(Thanks, Luvie)
Telegraph – Virgin Media say pay us for faster content streaming April 14, 2008
follow the example – Bell Canada – ringing in the spins, April 7, 2008
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April 14th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
The issue of p2p draining the b/w is a red herring set up by the corporations to justify a method to increasing income off the same resources. Just out last night was an editorial on this very subject with an interview of Dr. Andrew Odlyzko, one of the top experts of internet traffic usage over at ARS Technica and is still on the front page.
According to Dr. Odlyzko, the idea of a tsunami of internet traffic isn’t a new idea. It’s one that has been with us, like an urban legend that won’t die, for some time. He sees the problem isn’t with the traffic on the net, that the growth rate has actually slowed down and while the usage b/w is expanding the growth of the net is slowing down. That the main issue isn’t expansion abilities of the communications companies, nor the increasing of the backbone size but rather the last mile connections. Those biggest companies that connect at the last mile are were the problems are. The cost to straighten out the limited amount of traffic over old copper wires and nodes from cable companies is the biggest factor and those corporations are not wanting to invest to cure this. They want to be paid to do it.
So the red herring is a passable sounding reason to delay until either the customer finances any changes or the government comes along to fill the swill trough with more money. Korea is a far smaller country than the US yet it handles day to day as much internet traffic as the US. Japan, where infrastructure is cheaper to install fiber to the apartment complex is doing just fine. Both of these countries are well known for both their internet usage as well as their high speeds available at cheap prices. Something the US lacks from no competition in the market to the monopolies.
April 14th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Search for virgin on recordingindustryvspeople site – it comes TOO often!
April 14th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Another arrogant, asshole CEO announcing he is going to screw people. What a surprise.
April 14th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
They are all too happy to sign you up, but god forbid you use your full bandwidth potential, lest you suffer the wrath of the FPU (fair use policy / panacea of clauses).
April 14th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
This cannot happen!! If Virgin is allowed to do this, other isp’s will follow suit and the internet as we know will be over, gone, f*ckked.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:47 am
If i was competition, I would be extatic over this unbelievably stupid remark! It would go streight to my marketing department!
April 15th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Oh dear god.. i knew that it’d come down to this one day…. If Virgin does this on top of their traffic shaping policies, (Bandwitdh is HALVED daily from 430pm to approx 10pm for all net related activities), i will be forced to go back to BT, gawd i never thought i’d say this…..
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:09 am
We.. sh**! I thought I was safe with Virgin
Also, BT customers, Don’t think you are safe, BT use illegal software to watch what you are doing already.
April 5th, 2009 at 12:12 am
I am of the opinion, that this man, can go fuck himself