The Broadband Crunch: Internet Overload?

[satch]

Interesting article on MSN.

http://tech.uk.msn.com/features/article.aspx?cp-documentid=8085393

 

[monaghan]

The issue's been brewing for years, ISP's are selling huge amounts of bandwidth, but not building the infrastructure to deliver it. It's just the same overselling that the budget web hosts have been offering for years, just that now people are wanting to use the bandwidth that they've been sold and the ISP's can't deliver so are blaming the likes of the BBC for providing the content people are asking for.

Looking on Google, the 1st 2 adverts were

Broadband for £4.50/mth
VirginMedia.com Really fast broadband, free security & unl downloads. Join now!
O2 Broadband from £7.50
broadband.o2.co.uk Unlimited downloads and up to 8Mb from £7.50 a month. Order today!

If ISP's insist on selling people unlimited downloads, then they can't really complain when people expect to be able to get unlimted downloads. The man on the street has no idea that the real cost of delivering an unlimited download is way in excess of £4.50/month.

 

[stevebrowne]

that's why I pay £79 or so a month for REAL unlimited (so far...)

 

[satch]

Thanks monaghan, I have very little knowledge of internet connection (my brother sorts all mine out) I didnt realise its been brewing for years.

The issue's been brewing for years, ISP's are selling huge amounts of bandwidth, but not building the infrastructure to deliver it.

In this case the ISP's should be the ones funding the required developments, the article talks about the government possibly chipping in with taxpayers money - as if takpayers arent paying for enough .

 

[monaghan]

When I started using the Internet many years ago as an employee of a large telecoms manufacturer, the 128Kbs line to the States was huge even when shared for the whole corporate connection, we had a whole 2Mbs ring between our local 7 or 8 sites for a about of thousand employees. These days you can get a quicker connection on your phone

I don't see that the tax payer should be funding anything. The likes of Virgin, Tiscali and so on are selling packages they can't deliver on. The content providers like the BBC have to upgrade their Internet connections to be able to deliver their content, the service providers have the option to upgrade their connections but seem happy not to and impose traffic restrictions.

 

[GreyWing]

Anyone thinking Ken Livingstone and New Labour can sort this out with a congestion charge?

I genuinely wouldn't put it past them.

 

[Daniablo]

The only thing that annoys me that the UK's geographical locations, makes it expensive for ISPs to offer high upload speeds.

 

[satch]

Anyone thinking Ken Livingstone and New Labour can sort this out with a congestion charge?

The first virtual 'congestion charge' for the whole of Britain. :lol: