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Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is doing throttling

news.northeastern.edu

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Re: Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is doing throttling

#31

Post by sbr464 »

takeda wrote: post #26
sbr464 wrote: post #25

Years back, I operated a small ISP to serve a need until cable broadband arrived in the community. I had to monitor overall usage and throttle clients frequently with high torrent/video usage. It was also an issue with hotspots in RV Parks/campgrounds where there was a higher ratio of video usage. There are technical limitations to spectrum/bandwidth, I'm curious why this isn't mentioned more in discussions like thes…

You should either guarantee a minimum speed with unlimited data or cap on maximum amount of data use can use. Throttling based on content means you were overselling. As an user I prefer to be in control of which applications get to use the Internet that I'm paying for.

But from a physics/technical standpoint, a radio only has so much capacity. How would you handle the situation, if you managed a provider, and 10 people at a bar started streaming an NBA game in HD? Somethings got to give.

Re: Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is doing throttling

#32

Post by lucb1e »

gsich wrote: post #23
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #10

Netflix blocks PIA, a VPN, from accessing its servers. Rights holders’ unchecked power is the problem. Abstracting their power through net neutrality terminology distracts from their damage and promotes their cause. If you want a shortcut to the solution, it includes “how could I make Netflix indfifferent as to how I access their content?”

Netflix is the problem. Nobody is forcing them to implement a VPN check. Rights holder want this. Netflix just delivers.

From your own comment it sounds like rights holders are forcing them to implement a VPN check..?

Re: Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is doing throttling

#33

Post by ddtaylor »

sbr464 wrote: post #25

Years back, I operated a small ISP to serve a need until cable broadband arrived in the community. I had to monitor overall usage and throttle clients frequently with high torrent/video usage. It was also an issue with hotspots in RV Parks/campgrounds where there was a higher ratio of video usage. There are technical limitations to spectrum/bandwidth, I'm curious why this isn't mentioned more in discussions like thes…

I think the issue is that most ISPs are not transparent and their advertising comes off as double-speak. Watching their promotional materials they attempt to mislead consumers into thinking they are getting unlimited connections they are free to do whatever they want with when in reality they are getting a very specific bandwidth limit with a lot of strings attached.

Re: Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is doing throttling

#34

Post by skummetmaelk »

sbr464 wrote: post #31
takeda wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should either guarantee a minimum speed with unlimited data or cap on maximum amount of data use can use. Throttling based on content means you were overselling. As an user I prefer to be in control of which applications get to use the Internet that I'm paying for.

But from a physics/technical standpoint, a radio only has so much capacity. How would you handle the situation, if you managed a provider, and 10 people at a bar started streaming an NBA game in HD? Somethings got to give.

Then this must be clearly stated in the advertisement material.

Re: Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is doing throttling

#35

Post by stefan_ »

sbr464 wrote: post #31
takeda wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should either guarantee a minimum speed with unlimited data or cap on maximum amount of data use can use. Throttling based on content means you were overselling. As an user I prefer to be in control of which applications get to use the Internet that I'm paying for.

But from a physics/technical standpoint, a radio only has so much capacity. How would you handle the situation, if you managed a provider, and 10 people at a bar started streaming an NBA game in HD? Somethings got to give.

The streams themselves give? That's why all the ISPs are throttling video, because it's adaptive to bandwidth and doesn't fail outright!

Which also, of course, explains why throttling it all the time is not necessary and certainly not optimal.

Re: Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is doing throttling

#36

Post by buboard »

takeda wrote: post #26
sbr464 wrote: post #25

Years back, I operated a small ISP to serve a need until cable broadband arrived in the community. I had to monitor overall usage and throttle clients frequently with high torrent/video usage. It was also an issue with hotspots in RV Parks/campgrounds where there was a higher ratio of video usage. There are technical limitations to spectrum/bandwidth, I'm curious why this isn't mentioned more in discussions like thes…

You should either guarantee a minimum speed with unlimited data or cap on maximum amount of data use can use. Throttling based on content means you were overselling. As an user I prefer to be in control of which applications get to use the Internet that I'm paying for.

And add that , if you are in a sparsely used area, you can achieve even better rates? In the end it's just easier to say that your video might be throttled

Re: Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is doing throttling

#37

Post by DougBTX »

sbr464 wrote: post #31
takeda wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should either guarantee a minimum speed with unlimited data or cap on maximum amount of data use can use. Throttling based on content means you were overselling. As an user I prefer to be in control of which applications get to use the Internet that I'm paying for.

But from a physics/technical standpoint, a radio only has so much capacity. How would you handle the situation, if you managed a provider, and 10 people at a bar started streaming an NBA game in HD? Somethings got to give.

The argument would go that if the radio has total capacity x and each user is allocated capacity y, then only x / y users should be allowed to join the service, otherwise it is "over selling".

It is a super straight forward model, but obviously much more expensive to provide. I imagine most users would be happy to pay 1/10 of the cost to get a service that might drop to 10% performance in the worst case, as long as it doesn't happen too frequently.

Re: Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is doing throttling

#38

Post by buboard »

lucb1e wrote: post #29
RangerScience wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know either. The significant thing shouldn't be that video vs pics vs text is throttled (although that's an important thing that should be part of purchasing information), but whether Hulu vs Netflix are throttled.

Yep, there's a reason that's legal under net neutrality laws: - If you need to block streaming video because that's the only way your public WiFi on trains is going to work, iirc you can do that without any legal issues. - If you zero-rate music services as a marketing stunt, go ahead, but then you shall zero-rate all music services. (Still seems annoying, as a music service, to go around the world and apply to every…

i thought the old american NN rules did not allow zero rating

Re: Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is doing throttling

#39

Post by gesman »

The problem is not with throttling per se (it’s a laws of physics after all!) but not disclosing and/or misleading customers to think there is an unlimited stable bandwidth and/or not disclosing in clear words when, how and how much throttling will be triggered.

Do that - and the grief from both sides will be avoided.

Without proper and clear disclosure both sides think the other side is an aholes

Re: Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is doing throttling

#40

Post by sbr464 »

DougBTX wrote: post #37
sbr464 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But from a physics/technical standpoint, a radio only has so much capacity. How would you handle the situation, if you managed a provider, and 10 people at a bar started streaming an NBA game in HD? Somethings got to give.

The argument would go that if the radio has total capacity x and each user is allocated capacity y, then only x / y users should be allowed to join the service, otherwise it is "over selling". It is a super straight forward model, but obviously much more expensive to provide. I imagine most users would be happy to pay 1/10 of the cost to get a service that might drop to 10% performance in the worst case, as long as i…

I agree, definitely. It was an interesting experiment, and the realities of the then current wireless tech were so limiting, it was eye-opening to be on the provider side for once.
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