Throttling necessary in universities

At an unnamed English university:
"With the new installations, IT technicians have improved ability to monitor and tune the performance of wi-fi, and keep the network running at its best. The traffic on the wired and wireless student networks grew significantly in the year to January 2014 until, at the start of this term, demand at peak times reached the limits of the University's internet connection. This has been largely due to the changing nature of internet use, including a big increase in the amount of higher definition video being streamed to computers on the campus.
The growing popularity of cloud services has also had an impact as more devices are constantly using the internet to keep in sync.
All universities are facing similar issues and, to meet demand, Janet - the network provider to UK higher education - is rolling out a major new infrastructure across the country. As a temporary measure until the new service is in place, IT Services have had to reduce the capacity available to individual connections. This is to ensure that all students can use the internet for general web browsing and watch online video in reasonable quality. Without these limits, performance would have been quite uneven, with some people unable to use any external web sites. However, IT staff have been monitoring traffic and adjusting the limits regularly to make them as generous as possible until the extra bandwidth is available."

MEP: net neutrality and the open internet traded off in telecoms package

MEP: net neutrality and the open internet traded off in telecoms package: "In the past the European Parliament has repeatedly expressed its support for stronger guarantees for net neutrality in Europe. Schaake continues to work to improve the proposal ahead of the European Parliament’s plenary vote in April. “The whole package has been rushed through by Parliament because abolishing roaming costs is a nice message to campaign on. Of course that is an important step towards completing the digital single market. But some politicians are blinded by this short term win and lose sight of the long-term importance of an open internet.

The plenary vote on the proposal for a European single telecoms market will take place on April 3rd." 'via Blog this'

Ofcom: Consumer Switching reform fully implemented by June 2015...

Ofcom | Consumer Switching: "We have also concluded that it is appropriate for the GPL NoT+ requirements to be introduced in two phases:
A first phase: the implementation of changes to the GPL NoT process. These do not depend on Openreach systems development. This must be completed within nine months of the publication of this Statement.
A second phase, (conducted in parallel with the NoT+ implementation), the implemention of a harmonised GPL switching process. We believe it is appropriate to extend the timescale that we proposed for this from 12 months to 18 months. This phase includes discontinuation of the LPL MAC process for broadband switches." 'via Blog this'

TeleFrieden: Netflix Has Buyer’s Remorse Over Its Paid Peering Deal with Comcast

TeleFrieden: Netflix Has Buyer’s Remorse Over Its Paid Peering Deal with Comcast: "I believe it will be quite a stretch for content providers to wrap themselves around a network neutrality banner when a downstream carrier manipulates the allocation of ports and bandwidth for maximum leverage.  This “network management” function does not constitute deliberate blocking of packets.  Similarly Comcast will reframe the issue as one of commercial negotiations about access to property rather than discrimination and an unfair trade practice." 'via Blog this'

EU and UK Next Gen Broadband Uptake Improves But 100Mbps Still Rare - ISPreview UK

EU and UK Next Gen Broadband Uptake Improves But 100Mbps Still Rare - ISPreview UK: "Samknows has also gathered together data from its real-world performance testing (uses custom routers in 10,000 EU homes to monitor Internet connections) across Europe and revealed that the average advertised download speed across all countries was 38.50Mbps during peak hours, compared to 30.37Mbps of actual speed (up by an extra 10Mbps+ since March 2012).

As you’d expect, some broadband technologies are better and more reliable at delivering on the advertised speed than others (e.g. slower copper line ADSL services vs cable lines). For example, xDSL services delivered 63.8% of the advertised speed but fibre optic based (FTTx – includes VDSL/FTTC) lines scored 82.7% and cable managed 89.5%." 'via Blog this'

Which? Demands Broadband Speed Guarantee

Which? Awards the Best UK ISPs and Demands Broadband Speed Guarantee - ISPreview UK: "As part of today’s consumer satisfaction survey Which? has also published the results from a new Populus poll, which interviewed 2,012 UK adults online between 8th and 9th January 2014. The study revealed that 63% of people still experience problems with their broadband connection and 45% claim to suffer slow download speeds (58% said they experienced this frequently or all the time).

Poor customer service tends to be another common issue, with 31% of those who contacted their provider with a problem saying they didn’t get a resolution; meanwhile 25% of those who did get a resolution were dissatisfied with how long it took (20% had to contact their ISP three times or more before their issue was fixed). Worse still, some 27% of those who had reported a service outage said it took two days to fix and 11% claimed to have been without Internet access for a week or more.

As a result Which? has called on ISPs to offer a Broadband Speed Guarantee and not to charge consumers when their internet service is down (or refund broadband charges).

Which? Wants Broadband ISPs to:

1. Give customers written speed estimates at the start of the contract.

2. Allow people to exit contracts without penalty if they don’t get that speed.

3. Fix loss of connection as quickly as possible and refund people for loss of service.

4. Cut out the jargon – give consumers information they understand and take responsibility for fixing problems." 'via Blog this'

EU votes on net neutrality "glaring caveat"

EU votes to protect net neutrality, end roaming charges (Wired UK): "The vote was not without controversy, given that the net neutrality element contains a glaring caveat, with wording that says that "specialised services" can be exempted from the principle. Some services such as IPTV and "business-critical data intensive cloud applications" do work better when they are given dedicated bandwidth -- provided that doesn't interfere with the internet speeds offered to customers -- but the wording isn't clear enough. The worry is that ISPs could end up doing deals with some content providers such as Netflix in order that their content is prioritised over other services -- something that has already happened in the US." 'via Blog this'

Statement of Amelia Andersdotter on ITRE vote

Electronic communications - Content - The Greens | European Free Alliance: "“Today's vote would seriously threaten the principle of net neutrality in the EU. A centre-right majority has regrettably supported proposals by the Commission, which would essentially give large providers the all clear for discriminating against users as they see fit. This flies in the face of previous commitments by the Commission to guarantee net neutrality and ensure a level playing field for all online services and users. We will urge MEPs to vote differently when Parliament as a whole votes on the text in plenary.

"Today's vote has produced an incoherent patchwork and it is hard to see how EU governments in Council could take this chaotic outcome as a serious basis for negotiations. This could delay some of the clearly positive provisions of the draft legislation, for example on eliminating data roaming charges. We will now push for this to be rectified when MEPs vote as a whole in plenary."" 'via Blog this'

Loopholes Remain After Key Vote by Lead EU Parliament Committee

Net Neutrality: Dangerous Loopholes Remain After Key Vote by Lead EU Parliament Committee | La Quadrature du Net: "The “Industry” (ITRE) committee has just adopted its report on the Telecom Regulation and Net Neutrality. Despite improvements – especially in comparison with Neelie Kroes' proposal –, the committee and its rapporteur, Pilar del Castillo Vera, bowed to the pressure of the telecom lobby, and major loopholes remain in the text. If the Internet as we know it is to be protected from the rent-seeking behaviour of big corporations who dominate the digital economy, these loopholes must be closed during the European Parliament vote in plenary session on 3 April." 'via Blog this'

Berlaymonster: Gravy-train season-ticket extension

Berlaymonster: Gravy-train season-ticket extension: "This time could be messier than usual.

Europe's main political groupings have for the first time put forward candidates of their own. They say that whichever group wins the European elections in May has the right to plonk their man in the top job, the cherished European Commission President role.

Europe's governments, meanwhile, still think they have the ultimate say over who gets that seat."

That means a few more Kroes months than expected - potentially to March 2015. That should mean the Regulation does get through the institutions....? 'via Blog this'

TeleFrieden: Scale and the Comcast-TWC Acquisition

TeleFrieden: Scale and the Comcast-TWC Acquisition: "Cohen recognized the duty to make the case for the deal based on some articulation of how the public benefits, or at least is “not threatened.” He emphasized that Comcast needs to acquire even greater scale to operate effectively and to provide consumers with the best quality of service, a robust research and development budget and a wealth of next generation services, including a new state of the art set top box.  He did not mention the prospect for lower prices even though larger scale may support the company’s ability to extract lower content prices and better Internet peering terms, in the same manner as Walmart. " 'via Blog this'

BBC Radio 4 - The Media Show: Net neutrality - should all internet traffic be treated equally?

BBC Radio 4 - The Media Show, BBC3 online only; Vice news launches; net neutrality , Net neutrality - should all internet traffic be treated equally?: "Net neutrality - should all internet traffic be treated equally? DURATION: 11 MINUTES
With Neelie Kroes, Emily Bell and Kip Meek
"

If you have any doubt that the Commissioner is not sincere about net neutrality, just listen to her answers to Steve Hewson's gentle questioning. Q: should users open Internet improve even if telcos only invest in #specializedservices? @NeelieKroesEU: No & not worried!

Also ridiculous Emily Bell fails badly to explain the Verizon net neutrality ruling - and the NetFlix deal. It might be worth adding an expert to the discussion! 'via Blog this'

Deutsche Telekom plans over-the-top partner push

Deutsche Telekom plans over-the-top partner push, building on existing deals with Spotify and Evernote — Tech News and Analysis: "Such partnerships would definitely threaten to raise the net neutrality alarm if the relevant traffic received preferential treatment on DT’s network. Company spokesman Andreas Leigers insisted to me on Thursday that there wouldn’t be any traffic prioritization, but he did leave open the possibility of these services’ traffic not counting towards the customer’s usage cap. “It depends on the respective partnership,” he said.

This is already what happens with Spotify on DT’s network, for example, and there’s a strong argument for calling this a net neutrality violation." 'via Blog this'

Verizon CEO took us on a tour of the next-generation internet: telco-style

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam just took us on a tour of the next-generation internet: telco-style — Tech News and Analysis: "McAdam is seemingly unaware or willfully ignoring the contradiction inherent in charging users more for using a lot of broadband while trying to build demand for faster services. While Google is trying to push the envelope on new services and faster networks, the companies that own most of these networks are concerned with keeping the envelope full of cash.

Again, this behavior makes sense given that telcos have a duopoly situation in most parts of the country. There’s no need to focus on making a service better, or to drive demand for a product, when you’re the only company that sells that product; especially if greater demand has historically meant that you need to then lay out more money for spectrum or digging new trenches." 'via Blog this'