On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 9:16 AM, Blake Hudson <blake@ispn.net> wrote:
I don't see this as a technical problem, but one of business and ethics. ISP X advertises/sells customers "up to 8Mbps" (as an example), but when it comes to delivering that product, they've only guaranteed 512Kbps (if any) because the ISP hasn't put in the infrastructure to support 8Mbps per customer. Customer believes
Hey, what part of "up to 8Mbps" is an assurance, that the system supports 8Mbps from all customers 24x7 simultaneously? Only the former can be delivered inexpensively; the latter from large service providers is a business service that doesn't seem to be in the compass of ordinary mortals. Because this is the well-known industry standard; it can't accurately be described as one of deception. Then there is this whole matter of end-to-end connectivity. Just because your WAN device links up at 8 Megabits, does not mean you have been guaranteed 8 Mbits end-to-end. Intentionally failing to upgrade selected links and establish peerings to carry traffic to high-demand destinations when necessary, is just constructive rate-limiting. It's just a very clumsy imprecise alternative to rate-limiting a destination, that can be claimed to have been done without specific intent. As far as network neutrality regulation is concerned... that should be regarded with (essentially) no difference, from other traffic management practices, such as using shaping or policing rules to limit connectivity to the destination IP addresses.
he/she has 8Mbps, Content provider says we provide 8Mbps content, but ISP can (theoretically and in practice) only deliver a fraction of that. That feels like false advertising to me.
-- -JH