Ofcom: mobile blocking Skype but we don't care

ISPreview UK: "Ofcom used this report to keep a close eye (sic) on the issue of Net Neutrality and Traffic Management, although they found that “there are currently no substantive concerns in relation to the traffic management practices used by fixed ISPs“. The regulator noted some “concern” with how some mobile operators block Skype (VoIP) but not enough to take any action against." The traffic management section starts on p49 and includes this choice example of how ISPs are largely ignoring Ofcom's evidence-gathering:

"7.14 We asked operators to estimate the impact of traffic management restrictions. Although most told us that such calculations were too difficult to make, others told us that the impact could be significant, e.g. one fixed ISP said the estimated impact of its traffic management policies was to reduce P2P traffic to 1% of what it would otherwise be at peak times.
7.15 P2P is not the only type of traffic which is subject to traffic management. For example, O2 restricts the speed of video traffic on its lowest priced broadband package to 0.8Mbit/s, and offers higher-priced broadband packages that do not use traffic management for video traffic."
Note 0.8Mb/s is deliberately chosen as just below what is needed for BBC iPlayer services!

'via Blog this'

Virgin Media Failing to Fix Peak Time Broadband Latency and Peering Woes

ISPreview UK: Full disclosure - these clowns are my broadband provider...
"Cable ISP Virgin Media UK has so far failed to completely resolve its broadband peering problems, which re-emerged over a week ago and has left many customers to suffer from high latency (bad for multiplayer games) and video buffering problems during peak times.
The situation was originally caused when Atrato began pushing “abnormal amounts of traffic” through Virgin’s public peering links at LINX (London Internet Exchange) in October; this overloaded them and caused a spate of slow speeds and high latency (ping) woes." 'via Blog this'

Cantor slams net neutrality as example of 'imperial presidency'

Cantor slams net neutrality as example of 'imperial presidency' - The Hill's Hillicon Valley: "House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) cited net-neutrality regulations as evidence of what he called President Obama's disregard for the legislative process in a report released Tuesday." Nutcase. 'via Blog this'

Virgin only 3rd fastest upload in UK with 12:1 up/download ratio

Top 8 UK Fastest Broadband ISPs by Download Speed for October 2012 - ISPreview UK: "According to Broadband.co.uk, the fastest ISP for internet download speed remains Virgin Media with an impressive result of 33.430Mbps (up from 32.935Mbps last month). Meanwhile Eclipse Internet has stolen Virgin’s crown for the fastest upload speeds (3.321Mbps, up from 2.371Mbps last month)." Virgin is shocking for Skype calling... 'via Blog this'

BT Brings FTTC Roll-out Forward to Spring 2014

BT Brings UK Superfast Broadband Rollout Forward to Spring 2014 - ISPreview UK: "BT has today confirmed that its national £2.5bn plan, which aims to deploy fibre optic based superfast broadband (FTTC , FTTP) ISP services to 66% of the UK, has once again been brought forward and will now complete during Spring 2014 (i.e. passing 19 million homes and businesses). The telecoms operator originally planned to complete its privately funded roll-out by the end of 2015" - which suggests 66% might be a soft target? 'via Blog this'

Ofcom | Speech on the internet and consumer protection in the digital age

Ofcom | Speech on the internet and consumer protection in the digital age: "Ofcom’s research on this showed that around 30% of switchers experienced an unwanted break in service when switching broadband on its own or as part of a bundle. On average, this loss of service lasted around 12 days, and a significant number of switchers (13%) had no broadband for more than 30 days. This is clearly unacceptable. Our research also shows, unfortunately but unsurprisingly, that many consumers regard switching as too much hassle to be worth the bother. This is not just bad for the consumer, it is bad for the competitive process and for the internet economy as a whole." 'via Blog this'

ASA Start Enforcing New UK Mobile Broadband Speed Advertising Rules

ASA Start Enforcing New UK Mobile Broadband Speed Advertising Rules - ISPreview UK: "Under the new guidelines mobile operators, which have had 3 months to make the necessary changes, must be able to demonstrate that any internet connection speed they promote is “achievable for at least 10% of the relevant customer base“. This must further be supported by robust, reasonable and representative data that can be “clearly explained” to customers. The changes came about after several studies, such as Ofcom’s 2011 research, revealed that actual mobile broadband performance often delivered significantly less than advertised. " 'via Blog this'