Free Market Economy
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See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8606280.stm[^] From the article: "Now cable and telephone companies have permission to charge you extra for a better quality of service or faster quality. This opens the door to an internet with a fast lane and a slow lane for whoever can pay." In other news, Ferrari charge more for a high-performace car than Ford do for a small runabout. I've also just discovered that 8 bedroom mansions with sea-front views and private beaches cost more than 1 bedroom apartments. Oh, the injustice of it all!
If I understand the article correctly, we're not talking about selling users various connection speeds (that's already available), we're talking about Net Nuetrality. What the providers want to do is sell you one connection speed, then throttle that back "certain types of traffic where subscribers were downloading large files using peer-to peer file-sharing services" It will no longer be fastest possible speeds up to xMbs. It will be maximum possible speeds up to xMbs, unless you're downloading something where having the maximum possible speed would save you a lot of time and maybe require the service provider to upgrade their network to maintain the service levels you singed on for... There's not a free market in high speed internet in most areas here anyway. In most areas you have 2 possible providers (1 phone based, 1 cable based), and many areas only have one or the other. The companies would now like to take advantage of their monopoly or near monopoly situations.
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If I understand the article correctly, we're not talking about selling users various connection speeds (that's already available), we're talking about Net Nuetrality. What the providers want to do is sell you one connection speed, then throttle that back "certain types of traffic where subscribers were downloading large files using peer-to peer file-sharing services" It will no longer be fastest possible speeds up to xMbs. It will be maximum possible speeds up to xMbs, unless you're downloading something where having the maximum possible speed would save you a lot of time and maybe require the service provider to upgrade their network to maintain the service levels you singed on for... There's not a free market in high speed internet in most areas here anyway. In most areas you have 2 possible providers (1 phone based, 1 cable based), and many areas only have one or the other. The companies would now like to take advantage of their monopoly or near monopoly situations.
My intention was not to comment on "Net Neutrality", or traffic shaping in general, but just to poke fun at the original comment I quoted.
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Virgin charges more for it's 50mb than it does for it's 20mb service. That's not right, that's blatent capitalism! I demand Communism, everyone should get 20mb and like it! Except me, I still need my 50mb and am able and willing to pay for it of course.
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
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Simon P Stevens wrote:
This isn't about charging more for a better service
From my original quote: "charge you extra for a better quality of service" I'm going to go out on a limb here, but that is about charging more for a better service
Simon P Stevens wrote:
allow ordinary road users the ability to pay an additional charge to give them the same right I'm sure we'd end up in chaos.
I'm not suggesting they can jump the lights, but it can work[^].
Electron Shepherd wrote:
quality of service
"Quality of service" - Wikipedia[^]
"[T]he traffic engineering term quality of service (QoS) refers to resource reservation control mechanisms rather than the achieved service quality. Quality of service is the ability to provide different priority to different applications, users, or data flows, or to guarantee a certain level of performance to a data flow."
Quality of service here refers to more than just consumer service levels. It's about packet control. Yes, at some point it may lead to companies charging more for faster broadband, and I don't really have anything against that (it's already done anyway) what this is about is packet level prioritisation. The M6 Toll is different, that's the equivalent of a private network (and charging to allow use). Nothing wrong with that. The problem arises if you start allowing certain users more privileged use than others. Would the M6 toll work as well if you had 2 price levels. General access £5, max speed of 30mph and you're only allowed to use the first 2 lanes; and priority access £20, max speed of 70mph and you can use the fast lane too. Let's not get too far into the cars and roads analogy though, because on networks you don't quite have the same crash risk when you mixing fast and slow cars/packets. The problem isn't really for charging for better service. It's when the big players start negotiating for better service for their interests. What would happen if Microsoft struck up a deal with AT&T to prioritise traffic where the source and destination was a Windows PC. What if Google stuck a deal with BT to prioritise traffic to a chrome browser. Suddenly it becomes nothing to do with how good your software is, it becomes how many bribes can you afford to get your traffic prioritised. What if China struck up a deal with Google to remove results for sites that spoke out against the state. Oh, hang on, that one already happened. The service providers need to remain neutral. Net neutrality is difficult, as undesirable as I think it is, I suspect in the end it will be difficult to stop. The internet isn't really public, it's a bunch of interconnected private networks. In the end, those private owners probably will have nothing stopping them fr
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Electron Shepherd wrote:
quality of service
"Quality of service" - Wikipedia[^]
"[T]he traffic engineering term quality of service (QoS) refers to resource reservation control mechanisms rather than the achieved service quality. Quality of service is the ability to provide different priority to different applications, users, or data flows, or to guarantee a certain level of performance to a data flow."
Quality of service here refers to more than just consumer service levels. It's about packet control. Yes, at some point it may lead to companies charging more for faster broadband, and I don't really have anything against that (it's already done anyway) what this is about is packet level prioritisation. The M6 Toll is different, that's the equivalent of a private network (and charging to allow use). Nothing wrong with that. The problem arises if you start allowing certain users more privileged use than others. Would the M6 toll work as well if you had 2 price levels. General access £5, max speed of 30mph and you're only allowed to use the first 2 lanes; and priority access £20, max speed of 70mph and you can use the fast lane too. Let's not get too far into the cars and roads analogy though, because on networks you don't quite have the same crash risk when you mixing fast and slow cars/packets. The problem isn't really for charging for better service. It's when the big players start negotiating for better service for their interests. What would happen if Microsoft struck up a deal with AT&T to prioritise traffic where the source and destination was a Windows PC. What if Google stuck a deal with BT to prioritise traffic to a chrome browser. Suddenly it becomes nothing to do with how good your software is, it becomes how many bribes can you afford to get your traffic prioritised. What if China struck up a deal with Google to remove results for sites that spoke out against the state. Oh, hang on, that one already happened. The service providers need to remain neutral. Net neutrality is difficult, as undesirable as I think it is, I suspect in the end it will be difficult to stop. The internet isn't really public, it's a bunch of interconnected private networks. In the end, those private owners probably will have nothing stopping them fr
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Fair enough. :laugh:
Simon
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See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8606280.stm[^] From the article: "Now cable and telephone companies have permission to charge you extra for a better quality of service or faster quality. This opens the door to an internet with a fast lane and a slow lane for whoever can pay." In other news, Ferrari charge more for a high-performace car than Ford do for a small runabout. I've also just discovered that 8 bedroom mansions with sea-front views and private beaches cost more than 1 bedroom apartments. Oh, the injustice of it all!
What this now means is that internet providers can legally throttle down your connection if you download large files (Windows Updates, PS3 updates, torrents, MSDN downloads, etc). If you don't want to be throttled (not have a faster base connection, just not be throttled at your current speed) you will have to pay a premium. It also means that they can now legally charge users extra for visiting certain sites like YouTube. They can now even legally charge you per video you watch on YouTube. The previous ruling that was overturned was not about providing everyone with equal download speeds, it was about providing everyone on the same speed tier with equal access at that tier. ISPs no longer have to do that. Now they can charge $40/month for 5MB speeds base and $60/month for the privilege to actually use the 5MB.
Don't blame me. I voted for Chuck Norris.
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What this now means is that internet providers can legally throttle down your connection if you download large files (Windows Updates, PS3 updates, torrents, MSDN downloads, etc). If you don't want to be throttled (not have a faster base connection, just not be throttled at your current speed) you will have to pay a premium. It also means that they can now legally charge users extra for visiting certain sites like YouTube. They can now even legally charge you per video you watch on YouTube. The previous ruling that was overturned was not about providing everyone with equal download speeds, it was about providing everyone on the same speed tier with equal access at that tier. ISPs no longer have to do that. Now they can charge $40/month for 5MB speeds base and $60/month for the privilege to actually use the 5MB.
Don't blame me. I voted for Chuck Norris.
Not sure I get the "legally" bit. If it was illegal, that would be the government interferring in the market. A service provider can charge what they like, and offer any kind of service they like. I can start an ISP business, and offer connections with a charge per YouTube video, or even a charge per HTML page. That isn't (and shouldn't be) illegal. That's my choice about how I run my business. It's your choice if you choose to buy my service or not. As with anything else, if you don't like what someone is selling, just don't buy it.
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Not sure I get the "legally" bit. If it was illegal, that would be the government interferring in the market. A service provider can charge what they like, and offer any kind of service they like. I can start an ISP business, and offer connections with a charge per YouTube video, or even a charge per HTML page. That isn't (and shouldn't be) illegal. That's my choice about how I run my business. It's your choice if you choose to buy my service or not. As with anything else, if you don't like what someone is selling, just don't buy it.
The FCC's Net Neutrality law made it ILLEGAL in the US for ISPs to shape users connections based on the amount or type of data they downloaded. Where I live there's only 1 "broadband" internet provider, Verizon. I pay $40/month for an up to 5MB/s connection. Now the Supreme Court has given Verizon the ability to add on extra charges or cut my service if I want to spend a day watching Burn Notice episodes from the USA network's website. I don't have a choice of what service to buy, as there are no other choices here.
Don't blame me. I voted for Chuck Norris.
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The FCC's Net Neutrality law made it ILLEGAL in the US for ISPs to shape users connections based on the amount or type of data they downloaded. Where I live there's only 1 "broadband" internet provider, Verizon. I pay $40/month for an up to 5MB/s connection. Now the Supreme Court has given Verizon the ability to add on extra charges or cut my service if I want to spend a day watching Burn Notice episodes from the USA network's website. I don't have a choice of what service to buy, as there are no other choices here.
Don't blame me. I voted for Chuck Norris.
And if the personal value you derive from watching a downloaded film is greater than the financial cost, that's fine. Pay the charges. If it isn't, that's fibe too. Don't watch, and don't pay the charges. That's the choice you make. To say you don't have a choice is silly. No-one is forcing you to pay the charges, or even have an account with Verizon. Sure, in today's world, life without internet access can be inconvenient, but you do have the choice.