Say That Again

Say That Again

by Mike Masnick




Qwest Admits That File Sharing Isn't Really A Traffic Burden

from the someone-didn't-get-the-memo dept

Lots of broadband providers have been blaming P2P file sharing for messing up the economics of broadband offerings. That is, they build the networks and set the prices based on a certain expected usage, and now they're claiming that this increased usage is costing them -- meaning that they need to put in place bandwidth caps or traffic shaping tools that get rid of the expected neutral network customers thought they were signing up for. Of course, the fact that they blame these new technologies (or want to charge them more) is ridiculous. They're basically admitting that they did a horrible job of forecasting future usage -- and ignored just about every historical trend that shows when you give people bandwidth, applications and services come along that allow them to use that bandwidth. However, for all this telco/cable whining about how horrible it is that their bandwidth is being sucked dry by a bunch of P2P file sharing kids... it would appear that someone didn't slip Qwest's CTO the memo that they're all supposed to be kicking up a big storm about how unfair it all is. He says that the rest of the industry is overstating the impact of peer-to-peer traffic: "I found that the traffic is well under what some in that industry say is happening. I mean, you hear claims of significant double-digit penetration of peer-to-peer traffic, and it was not near there."

8 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1. Mar 28th, 2006 @ 8:18pm
    by mouse

    Charter should get with the program...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Mar 28th, 2006 @ 8:31pm

    file sharing overstated

    by mellowchild

    yeah i know and honestly,we pay for our internet its nice that at least qwest has a smart cto

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Mar 29th, 2006 @ 6:42am
    by Chris H

    Just put in imaginary caps like Comcast. God, I hate Comcast.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Mar 29th, 2006 @ 7:08am

    Re: file sharing overstated

    by Tom

    He can read traffic flow charts. That makes him smart?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Mar 29th, 2006 @ 9:42am
    by Anonymous Coward

    If broadband providers want to traffic shape or set usage caps, I don't have a problem as long as that information is in the advert using the same size font as the call to action and that "unlimited" is not used anywhere in the ad.

    New ad: "Sign up now for better, faster Internet access! Just don't use P2P, stream video, or download too much stuff."

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Mar 29th, 2006 @ 5:35pm
    by Al

    with all the OC-192 fiber they have as back bone ofcouse they can see a different. I have a OC-3 here at my office. I Ptp all day.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Nov 7th, 2008 @ 2:06pm

    new file engine search!

    by terry

    A modern search engine of the web is available for everybody- get the link and download- http://newfileengine.com -everything is simple!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. May 3rd, 2009 @ 7:03pm
    by fnord

    Quest appears to be throttling traffic from YouTube. My speed is OK when tested by a neutral testing service, and videos from other sites load and play without stops for buffering. Videos from YouTube are another matter. I have to click on the link, open another tab to continue surfing, and then go back to the video I want to watch five or ten minutes later. YouTube is said to be the 3rd largest source of Internet traffic. Quest has slowed down video transmission from YouTube to such and extent that I’m becoming reluctant to click on links to videos hosted by them.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie
  • Plain Text: A CRLF will be replaced by break <br> tag, all other allowable HTML is intact
  • HTML: No formatting of any kind is done without explicitly being written in
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <p> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Close
Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie

Search Techdirt
And now, a word from our Sponsors..



Subscribe to Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Related Stories
Close
E-mail It