Glasnost in graphics: UK, Spain, Poland, Nl, Serbia shape majority of IP traffic

From EDRi: darker colours denote more throttling (note dictatorships often even darker)

Virgin Media UK Fails to Get Sky Totally Unlimited Broadband Claim Banned - ISPreview UK

Virgin Media UK Fails to Get Sky Totally Unlimited Broadband Claim Banned - ISPreview UK:
"ASA Assessment (REF: A12-191871)
We noted that there were inherent limitations in any network, which would limit a consumer’s actual broadband speed and therefore the amount of data that a consumer could download over a particular period of time. Some of these limitations, such as signal attenuation, resulted in a greater loss of speed for DSL services compared to fibre-optic services. However, we considered that consumers would understand that the claim “totally unlimited” referred to provider-imposed limitations, especially traffic management policies.
We did not consider that the average consumer would infer that “totally unlimited” meant the broadband service was free from the inherent limitations found in the network."
Or: you canna mess with the laws of physics and that's not false advertising....'via Blog this'

The Challenges of Adaptive Streaming

BBC - Research and Development: The Challenges of Adaptive Streaming: "Adaptive streaming works by encoding the same media file at a number of different bit-rates, which produces multiple ‘representations’ of the content, each at different qualities. As the quality of the internet connection varies, the streaming client can switch between the different representations to provide a smooth viewing experience. When the connection is good, a high bit-rate representation will be requested, resulting in a good quality picture. If the connection worsens, the client will request a lower bit-rate, resulting in a slight decrease in picture quality but a better overall experience since it avoids freezing and rebuffering.
The BBC is already using adaptive streaming (e.g. for Wimbledon and the Olympics), however there is still work to be done to understand how the technology can be optimised for different network environments e.g. characteristics of residential broadband networks, and looking into how we can produce and test different algorithms that decide which representation to request based on the network environment."
'via Blog this'

The story of the digital Olympics: streams, browsers, most watched, four screens

BBC - BBC Internet Blog: The story of the digital Olympics: streams, browsers, most watched, four screens: "peak audiences for Team GB's medal moments were bigger than anything we've ever seen. Over a 24 hour period on the busiest Olympic days, Olympic traffic to bbc.co.uk exceeded that for the entire BBC coverage of FIFA World Cup 2010 games. On the busiest day, the BBC delivered 2.8 petabytes, with the peak traffic moment occurring when Bradley Wiggins won Gold and we shifted 700 Gb/s. BBC Sport Online's most requested live video stream was of the Tennis Singles Finals"
'via Blog this'

The most expensive iPhone5 plan in the world....£5100 in the UK

Twitter / internetthought: The most expensive iPhone5 ...: "The most expensive iPhone5 plan in the world. @orangeuk charges £5100,00 per month for 24 months. Pic as proof. pic.twitter.com/gdl0NBeE" 'via Blog this
P.S. The more usual price is about £1000 - see http://www.reghardware.com/2012/09/14/iphone_5_pay_monthly_tariffs_compared/

AT&T: Pay Me, Screw Net Neutrality - a frog's tale

Craig Aaron: AT&T: Pay Me, Screw Net Neutrality: "History makes it quite clear that carriers and ISPs will consider all sorts of ridiculous things in the name of propping up declining revenue streams like voice and text.
Today AT&T blocks FaceTime unless you pay their toll, but tomorrow it will be Skype, Google Voice or iMessage. And that's why users everywhere need to speak out against AT&T's harrowing vision for our wireless Internet future.
You know the story about boiling a frog. If you put it in the pot and slowly turn up the heat, the frog won't know it's being cooked. That's exactly what AT&T's doing here. Only the amphibians in question are its customers.
If you're one of them, look out. The water is starting to bubble." 'via Blog this'

Goodbye Mr Hunt, missing you already

UK should have fastest broadband network in Europe by 2015: "“In my very first speech as a Minister I said that I wanted us to have the “best” superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015,” said Jeremy Hunt in a recent speech. “In defining ‘best’ you include factors like price and coverage as well as speed. But over the past two years it has become clear, as Usain Bolt wouldn't hesitate to say, to be the best you need to be the fastest. So I am today announcing an ambition to be not just the best, but specifically the fastest broadband of any major European country by 2015. Indeed we may already be there.”"
What he meant is that the UK can't compete with the Netherlands so he is excluding them from his Olympics - oh, and Asia, the Americas...he's now Health Secretary, I do hope no-one gets sick on his watch 'via Blog this'