BT Says No Need For Traffic Shaping Or Breaking Net Neutrality; Just Add Bandwidth

from the well,-look-at-that... dept

It looks like the myth about how the internet is collapsing unless network neutrality can be broken is beginning to crumble. We’ve already seen that there’s plenty of investment in increased capacity, and that those who actually understand what’s going on say there’s no real threat of running out of capacity any time soon. However, the real cracks start coming out when even the telcos aren’t spewing what had been the industry line about the need to ditch network neutrality. Last year, Qwest’s CTO admitted that most telcos who were complaining about file sharing traffic eating up their capacity were overstating their case and now the CTO of BT is saying that using traffic shaping to break network neutrality is completely unnecessary. He notes that they’re investing in more bandwidth capacity, and that’s all they need. In discussing Rogers ongoing traffic shaping, BT’s CTO said that it sounds “quite Big Brother-ish,” and he sees no reason to do any traffic shaping, since they’ll have plenty of bandwidth to offer. It’s the argument plenty of people have made for years. While QoS and bandwidth are two different things, if you offer enough bandwidth, the QoS issues tend to fade away — and then the only reason to insist on QoS is if an ISP is trying to double charge some companies who have been better at monetizing the internet than the ISP. Of course, that hasn’t stopped the press from droning on about how video is about to kill the internet. Apparently that makes for a much better story than actually talking to those who manage the network.


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Comments on “BT Says No Need For Traffic Shaping Or Breaking Net Neutrality; Just Add Bandwidth”

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7 Comments
Iron Chef says:

Net Neutrality = Business Strategy by telecos

Amen, Mike. Have you seen Level3’s conduit plan? Instead of laying fiber which could become obsolete in the next 3 to 5 years, they layed empty conduit across the country and have patented a process to “suck” via vacuum new fiber through the conduits as the technology evolves.

Verizon, AT&T, and the like want to get into the consumer space (read: FTTP, FiOS, and UVerse) but lack the agility that LVLT has through their process.

It’s interesting that the big telecos say there’s enough bandwidth to go around for UVerse, FiOS, but at the same time worry so much about the backbone (read: cable customers) that Bandwidth shaping is necessary.

Net Neutrality is just another great way to get rid of your competitors slowly, while VZ and T build their to-the premisis business

happymellon says:

One Small Problem

Although you can use the QWest line, since BT is in a different country they suffer from increased competition, so they have to increase their bandwidth offering to stay competitive. When I can get someone other than AT&T then we’ll see some change in line.

The sad point is, I don’t believe it will ever happen, and there is not much I can do about it other than just move back to England.

ScaredOfTheMan says:

I Love The English!

Way to go BT, show the world there is a better way.

Its funny to listen to someone in England talking about Big Brother though considering they have the most public video camera in the whole EU (that now talk too).

But the CTO is absolutely correct, QoS only kicks in when their congestion, if you have enough bandwidth to handle the burst nature of non real time traffic, the real time (voice and video should have no problems).

Oh yeh... says:

Really?

Seriously BT is THE most deficient company out there. I swear. For years they wouldnt allow LLU for a number of made up reasons. They had to be forced in order to let LLU in.

Ill tell you a little story. 5/6 months. Thats how long my BT exchange has been congested. My ISP complains to them, I ring up india and complain to them (for all the good that does me, mindlessly parry back what ive said then say I need to speak with my ISP). Written a letter to them. Im still running on a congested exchange.

Oh if anyone high up in BT is reading this Exchange is Wisbech. Oh, and I hate you.

Now, something else. So I decide to lower my contention and go with a 20-1 instead of a 50-1. Its a simple package change with my ISP but BT have to change stuff in the exchange. Fair enough. This is a simple operation that should lead to about 20 minutes of outage max. My Broadband was off for 10 days. Im not kidding you, 10 days. Now that might not seem like alot, but for a quick procedure this is appaling. From what we were told by the engineer who phoned us up to apologize (1471’d the exchanges number too, as you cant get that number) higher up in BT Wholesale they told them the wrong thing, they told them a few different wrong things consistently for 10 days.

And these are the people you are praising? I wouldnt trust them to look after a tin of paint let alone my telecommunications. Unfortunately, out here in the sticks, we have no choice.

claire rand (user link) says:

i had BT internet for a while till i moved house and they completely messed it up. it worked but apparently i’m ‘too far from the exchange’ for the full 8 meg speed. given ith a half decent throw i could lob a rock through the exchange window…

anyway these ‘do it all’ companies are nothing but trouble.

my phone is BT, they are good with phones, LLU sounds good until something goes wrong and you find out the number of times its been leased and nobody will do anything about it.

my internet is now with eclipse, who are amazing. BT keep offering me internet access and have a problem with me saying ‘no’, they would like a reason and apparently ‘because i’ve had it before’ isn’t on the list.

no traffic shaping here either, not even a ‘fair useage policy’ the few rstrictions i have (it may slow down at peak times as more people use it) is stated ver clearly.

i can even run my own servers, they specifically support this.

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