-
-
Comcast beginning 'net neutrality' testing
Comcast will begin testing what the cable concern has described as a "protocol agnostic" approach to managing bandwidth traffic during high-peak periods, Comcast said Tuesday.
Selected customers in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and Warrenton, Virginia, are expected to receive e-mails on Wednesday highlighting the program. The 30-day tests are expected to begin Thursday.
"Unless you are an extremely heavy user of internet resources (which is not likely) you will not notice any change to your internet experience during this test," Mitch Bowling, general manager of Comcast online services says in the e-mail. "At the busiest times of the day on our network (which could occur at any time), those very few disproportionately heavy users, who are doing things like conducting numerous or continuous large file transfers, may experience slightly longer response times for some online activities, until the period of network congestion ends."
The move is designed to set aside complaints that the Philadelphia-based company has been throttling BitTorrent data and other peer-to-peer traffic to manage congestion. Comcast's practices have been the subject of hearings before the Federal Communications Commission, which is set to announce new rules concerning the concept of net neutrality.
Comcast announced in March it was switching to a new network management technique by the end of the year for managing bandwidth use and congestion. The company said it was partnering with BitTorrent Inc. of San Francisco, to develop a neutral traffic-management protocol.
Given that peer-to-peer users are the biggest users of bandwidth, it remains to be seen who in practice the new tests would disrupt during congestion periods. For now, rules by the FCC give ISPs broad authority to manage traffic flows, although that might soon change.
Comcast's testing follows the announcement by rival Time Warner Cable, which is to begin tests with customers on Thursday with metered access to bandwidth under a plan in which bigger users would pay more. Comcast has also publicly endorsed a metering plan, but has not roled out one.
Comcast has come under the ire of many digital rights groups for its network management practices. And last week, hackers took out their revenge against Comcast and redirected the Comcast.net homepage for several hours. The FBI is probing the incident. No arrests have been made. Comcast will begin testing what the cable concern has described as a "protocol agnostic" approach to managing bandwidth traf... more -
Time Warner Cable tries metering Internet use
NEW YORK (AP) — You're used to paying extra if you use up your cell phone minutes, but will you be willing to pay extra if your home computer goes over its Internet allowance?
Time Warner Cable Inc. customers — and, later, others — may have to, if the company's test of metered Internet access is successful.
On Thursday, new Time Warner Cable Internet subscribers in Beaumont, Texas, will have monthly allowances for the amount of data they upload and download. Those who go over will be charged $1 per gigabyte, a Time Warner Cable executive told the Associated Press.
Metered billing is an attempt to deal fairly with Internet usage, which is very uneven among Time Warner Cable's subscribers, said Kevin Leddy, Time Warner Cable's executive vice president of advanced technology.
Just 5 percent of the company's subscribers take up half of the capacity on local cable lines, Leddy said. Other cable Internet service providers report a similar distribution.
"We think it's the fairest way to finance the needed investment in the infrastructure," Leddy said. NEW YORK (AP) — You're used to paying extra if you use up your cell phone minutes, but will you be willing to pay extra if your h... more -
Save The Internet!
SavetheInternet.com Coalition is more than a million people who have banded together with thousands of non-profit organizations, businesses and bloggers to protect Internet freedom.
The Coalition believes that the Internet is a crucial engine for economic growth and free speech. They are working together to urge Congress to preserve Network Neutrality, the First Amendment of the Internet, which ensures that the Internet remains open to new ideas, innovation and progress. SavetheInternet.com Coalition is more than a million people who have banded together with thousands of non-profit organizations, busin... more -
Internet users to be banned over illegal downloads
In a new proposal broadband providers could be forced to ban people from the internet if they are caught downloading pirated files. It is being reported that a "three strikes" scheme could be implemented, which would see users being sent a warning email when they are first suspected of downloading illegal content, then a suspension for the second offence, and finally a ban for a third offence. Broadband suppliers who do not comply with the new legislation could be prosecuted and their users identities handed over to the courts.
The proposed legislation opens up many questions about how this is all to be monitored, what if someone accesses your wifi illegally and who will monitor internet usage to catch the illegal downloaders? These are points which have been debated for the last two years, but as yet there is no specific answer. A spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association said it remained hopeful that agreement over a voluntary agreement could be reached:
“Every right-thinking body knows that self-regulation is much the better option in these areas.” In a new proposal broadband providers could be forced to ban people from the internet if they are caught downloading pirated files. It... more -
Digital Inclusion: Getting the Next Billion People Online
Most people in developed nations recognize the "digital divide" separating people with access to the Internet and its wealth of information from those who have few resources. We want a world of "digital inclusion." How can we allow more people access to the Internet? What are the infrastructure barriers? What are the cost barriers? What about people in developing countries, rural areas, islands? And what about the threat of economic barriers that could impede access to parts or all of the Internet? This video about the issues surrounding digital inclusion features interviews shot at the 2007 Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Rio IGF was the second of five annual global events that attract stakeholders from all walks of life who gathered to discuss issues tied to the future of information and communications technologies.
This documentary was produced for Imagining the Internet http://imaginingtheinternet.org , an online resource exposing future possibilities while simultaneously providing a peek back at the past. In it, you will find the words of thousands of people from every corner of the world, from today and from yesterday, making thousands of predictive pronouncements about the future of humankind.
The multimedia section of the site includes short films and dozens of video interviews - all of them about the hopes and fears for the future of networked communications. Imagining the Internet is a project based at Elon University. Most people in developed nations recognize the "digital divide" separating people with access to the Internet and its wealth... more
-
related topics
Network Neutrality
Contributors (32)
Network Neutrality
