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| The problem... ...is that networks, both wired and wireless, are oversold. My guess is that AT&T is doing this to prevent P2P users from consuming too much bandwidth on its 3G network and slowing down everyone's traffic. I can sympathize with them on that...up to a point. The issue isn't P2P; it's allocation of bandwidth. Capacity is badly oversold on virtually all consumer-grade networks. In most cases, things work fine because not everyone uses all the bandwidth they're promised. However, if enough people do, the network can't handle it.
If I book a hotel room, I get that room. I don't have to share it with anyone else, and I don't get half a room when everyone who books a room shows up. If I buy a ticket to a concert or sporting event, I'm guaranteed a seat, even if every other ticket-holder shows up. And the above goes for just about every other service I can think of except broadband. Why is that? I'm not saying that these providers necessarily owe me all that bandwidth under any circumstances, but they certainly do given the way they're currently advertising it. If they state that they're selling a 6 MB service in the large print, then that's what they're selling. That little asterisk doesn't negate that statement being a lie if they can't honor it. Either offer a given level of service, or don't advertise it. The providers can take their pick of these options, but they can't have it both ways. | |
 hopeflickerCapitalism breeds greedPremium
join:2003-04-03
Long Beach, CA
kudos:1 | said by ISurfTooMuch:. The issue isn't P2P; it's allocation of bandwidth. Capacity is badly oversold on virtually all consumer-grade networks. QFT
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Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people. | | |
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 wifi4milezBig Russ, 1918 to 2008. Rest in Peace
join:2004-08-07
New York, NY | reply to ISurfTooMuch
said by ISurfTooMuch:If I book a hotel room, I get that room. I don't have to share it with anyone else, and I don't get half a room when everyone who books a room shows up. If I buy a ticket to a concert or sporting event, I'm guaranteed a seat, even if every other ticket-holder shows up. And the above goes for just about every other service I can think of except broadband. Actually hotels and airlines almost always overbook. They do this because they know a specific percentage of people typically dont show up. I have witnessed multiple first hand occasions when an airplane was full and additional ticketed passengers showed up. The flight is then grounded as they beg over the loudspeaker for people to "give up your seat" in exchange for first class tickets later in the day, or a free hotel room for the night and the first flight out the next day. Hotels are even worse in my opinion, given that you have already arrived at your destination. I have almost come to blows with hotel management (in foreign countries!) when they informed me someone else had taken my room. Only after I produced email confirmation of the reservation did they offer to give me a "free" room upgrade. This has happened multiple times to me personally, and I know its the policy for both these industries to do so.
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If history teaches us anything, it teaches that simple-minded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly.
-Ronald Reagan-
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hopeflickerCapitalism breeds greedPremium
join:2003-04-03
Long Beach, CA
kudos:1 | said by wifi4milez:said by ISurfTooMuch:If I book a hotel room, I get that room. I don't have to share it with anyone else, and I don't get half a room when everyone who books a room shows up. If I buy a ticket to a concert or sporting event, I'm guaranteed a seat, even if every other ticket-holder shows up. And the above goes for just about every other service I can think of except broadband. Actually hotels and airlines almost always overbook. They do this because they know a specific percentage of people typically dont show up. I have witnessed multiple first hand occasions when an airplane was full and additional ticketed passengers showed up. The flight is then grounded as they beg over the loudspeaker for people to "give up your seat" in exchange for first class tickets later in the day, or a free hotel room for the night and the first flight out the next day. Hotels are even worse in my opinion, given that you have already arrived at your destination. I have almost come to blows with hotel management (in foreign countries!) when they informed me someone else had taken my room. Only after I produced email confirmation of the reservation did they offer to give me a "free" room upgrade. This has happened multiple times to me personally, and I know its the policy for both these industries to do so. And this is a bad business practice. This just goes to show that businesses don't care about the customer.
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Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people. | |
 BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | reply to ISurfTooMuch
said by ISurfTooMuch:...is that networks, both wired and wireless, are oversold. My guess is that AT&T is doing this to prevent P2P users from consuming too much bandwidth on its 3G network and slowing down everyone's traffic. I can sympathize with them on that...up to a point. The issue isn't P2P; it's allocation of bandwidth. Capacity is badly oversold on virtually all consumer-grade networks. In most cases, things work fine because not everyone uses all the bandwidth they're promised. However, if enough people do, the network can't handle it. If I book a hotel room, I get that room. I don't have to share it with anyone else, and I don't get half a room when everyone who books a room shows up. If I buy a ticket to a concert or sporting event, I'm guaranteed a seat, even if every other ticket-holder shows up. And the above goes for just about every other service I can think of except broadband. Why is that? I'm not saying that these providers necessarily owe me all that bandwidth under any circumstances, but they certainly do given the way they're currently advertising it. If they state that they're selling a 6 MB service in the large print, then that's what they're selling. That little asterisk doesn't negate that statement being a lie if they can't honor it. Either offer a given level of service, or don't advertise it. The providers can take their pick of these options, but they can't have it both ways. My thinking would be a person that uses p2p is more likely to be one that's is causing network issues. Those that use at&t's internet and don't use p2p most likely stay within the 5 GB cap. Of course simplest thing is charge them outrageous overage fees then you can legally cut off their services for non-payment. Kind of solves the whole problem. If they actually pay the overage fees then use that money to increase capacity, because I'm 100% sure that the 1 GB of overage that Verizon charges $256 for actually cost Verizon less than $1. | |
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
 ·Comcast
| I've used AT&T's 3G service and it's actually rather well-suited to P2P, with 1200k down and about 500k up.
I wasn't able to get a decent BitTorrent stream on them though, so I used ImageShack. THe thing is, I can't seem to get a solid download stream (single connection or no) from ImageShack either. Grr.
Oh, and VPN? At least on my setup it would disconnect after about 5 seconds. Grrrr.
By the way, the AT&T 5GB deal is a soft cap...they still advertise their prepaid service as unlimited and the worst thing they could do there is cut off my account. At which time I'd grab a SIM from online (yaknow, eBay, BabbleBug.com) and go again.
SO I have a maybe $5 penalty for breaking AT&T's TOS. GOtta love it  | |
| reply to BF69
Re: The problem... I don't disagree that P2P eats a lot of bandwidth, but it isn't the only thing that can do that. Other examples are streaming audio and video. Those services aren't as widespread as P2P right now, but they will be soon enough. The nature of the Internet is changing, and so are peoples' expectations of what it should be delivering.
Oh, and to reply to the above posts about overbooking, yes, this happens, and I should have mentioned that, but it's also true that these businesses have to compensate people that are bumped. Broadband providers, OTOH, do not. | |
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