p2pnet.net News:- Canadian Shaw users aren’t the only ones suffering from ISP capping problems.

We’ve just heard from Maltese4Ever in (where else?) Malta.

Read on >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

You have all heard of ISP`s capping and throttling ports, putting download limits on some of their service, but what happened in my country at the beginning of this week is something you have never heard of, and I hope it will not be repeated again somewhere else in the world.

In Malta, there is only one data provider so, all ISPs in Malta have to buy bandwith from this provider with the consequence that prices have been fixed for ages. (ADSL prices).

Then in November, 2004, this provider decided to upgrade every users’ speed by 2 so 512k users became 1 mbit, etc, something like BT did two or three months ago in England.

Obviously, everyone was happy with this upgrade but alas, thngs didn’t say that way.

The first signs of things turning sour was when various ISP`s starting implementing download limits of 5 and 10 gigs on their services without an option to have an unlimited service.

Then at the beginning of this week, without any notice to the ISPs or to users, the data provider decided that whoever downloaded above a certain figure (and even the ISPs don’t know it is), would be placed in a queue.

"The problem was, they made three bands – normal, medium, and heavy – with the consequence that heavy users aren’t able to browse web sites, or do anything online.

The speed with which a web site loads is nearly the speed of a 56k modem, when one would have paid for a 1mbit service.

The points below came from my ISP:

Furthermore this is a supplementary description of the implemented system:

1. Lavender users downloads are measured over a 30 day window and each user is placed in different queues according to the volume of downloads made in the 30-day time window.

2. Each queue will have a different priority, with lowest download volume users being automatically given highest priority, next set of users in next queue a lower priority and so on for the rest.

3. Contention for each queue varies depending on the number of users falling in each queue as well as on the number of users and downloads in a higher priority queue.

4. This implies that if users in a higher priority queue are making low use of bandwidth, users in a lower queue would benefit from better contention. Of course this also implies that if users in a higher priority queue are making heavy use of bandwidth, users in a lower queue would suffer.

In a few sentences, the system works like this:

If a user paid for three months for a 1mbit service and in the first month went over the limit set by this data provider (and I repeat the amount is unknown and since they decide it each month, it’s not fixed!), for the following month, the user would have speeds of 56k modem, even though he’d paid for 1mbit!!!!. In month three he’d be back to 1mbit. But if he went over the limit again, he’dbe penalized for another month!. It’s a penalty system.

So to conclude, I brought this to your attention, fellow readers, to tell you that even though certain countries such as Malta are in the EU, customer satisfaction still doesn’t exist, and even though you grumble about your ISP or that ISP, at least you have some choice. But certain other countries don`t and have to put up with what they’re given.

Even though we say that the Internet is international and you have many ISPs to choose from, if things happen as they happened here where there’s only one data provider, the Internet becomes a monopoly in his hands, and he can do whatever he likes.

You might say, but there are monopoly laws and other regulations. But in a small country like the island of Malta where everyone knows everyone else, it’s difficult for someone to talk against someone if he doesn’t want to get into a lot of trouble.

This story has not been published in any local newspapers although thjis isn’t happening to just me, but to . hundreds. And to keep this in perspective, remember that that the Maltese population is only 300,000.

So if there are 2,000 users who have this problem, it’s a huge percentage.

===================

Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net

See:-
capping problems – Shaw throttling – ‘the fix!’, p2pnet, April 11, 2005

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 14th, 2005 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

HOME

Viewed 2773 times