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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Truth Teller @ Jun 12th 2008 4:16PM
The behaviour of some ISP's is an obvious (tho temporary) choke-
point.
But in the coming few years it's just not going to be the big problem it
once was, especially in the most populous areas.
Whether downloads are going to be the biggest portion of the market
or merely a large section of the future market remains to be seen but
make no mistake, downloading is set to grow very substantially.
Even things like the CE corps & movie studios advertising & expecting
people to hook up their players to the internet for the extra features
is going to encourage more people to get interested than otherwise
might bother.
But as for ISP problems?
In the short term the answer is obvious.
Dissatisfied customers should just get up off of their behinds and switch to a decent ISP.
I've experienced this myself & it's not the problem some might
imagine.
I used to be with a well-know UK ISP offering supposedly uncapped and
unlimited downloads for £20 per month.
They used to be good too. I was with them for years.
Then they got bought up and changed name a few times and the service
went down the cr@pper.
The last straw was just when I finally got my 'high speeds' (6.5mb)
that was when they started throttling my speeds (on a supposedly 'up
to 8mb connection) to about 1.3mb.
Even in the middle of the night (and as 'off-peak' as it gets).
And they introduced a 'fair use policy' the details of which seemed
only known to them.
F*ck them & that.
I moved to another ISP which charges me £1/$2 per week more for an
'up to 8mb' connection which is the best my line can give & it's never throttled.
This company have up front and very transparent charging (always a
good sign).
I get a monthly 30gb limit for downloading during peak hours (8am -
10pm) which is a little bit of a pain until you get used to it.
But I have a monthly 300gb limit during off-peak hours.
I know precisely where I stand with them and I get the exact service
I am paying for.
It beats moaning about them & doing nothing.
Roll on the end of the year & our upgrade to the new C21N technology,
'up to 24mb' connection (which if the ratio on the current connection
is maintained should be about 19 - 20mb).
It's starting to get much more like it and it makes downloading some handy nice 8.5gb DVD9 sized high def encodes a breeze (they're not exactly a big deal now).
....... and for those who refuse to believe it a well done 8.5gb - 12.5gb high def encode (with 1.5mbps DTS audio) is a very acceptable and watchable size.
(and if people aren't convinced by upscale verses high def you better believe they are not going to be worrying about a nice and properly done download)
joe @ Jun 12th 2008 6:46PM
It sounds like the market is doing far better in the UK than it is in the US.
I live in a major metropolitan US city population > 4 million and I can not switch broadband carriers. I want to get off cable modem and go to ANYWHERE else. I can not get isdn or fios. This leaves me with the option for dial up or cable modem.
The infrastructure isn't really in place in most cities to truly support wide broadband to consumers with choice. Beyond running separate network connections block wide runs need to be made to each residence. In an apartment building that can mean wiring a whole building.
These are all solvable problems but it will cost a lost of money. Many companies would love to compete in all markets but right now it is a divided battlefield. Where companies have the best chance of winning they invest their resources and leave other less certain markets.
Who provides your broadband isn't dependent on choice but dependent on your geographical location. I'm sure At&t would love to have me as a customer but they aren't going to rewire my apartment building to provide me with $30 a month broadband, even if the owner of the building allowed it.
For business US broadband access is aces. For the average consumer not so good.
The rates of transfer I'm looking at are at best 8mb/s.
I could see given your choice of providers and available speed why you would think VOD and DL would work.
The network providers will make the bandwidth for vod available but they aren't going to be selfless they are going to charge quite a bit to make it happen.