Network Neutrality and the rest of the World

Pilitus

I know we have some members who aren't American, so I wanted to ask a question that seems to be buzzing in the American websphere. Is it an issue in the rest of the world, or are we Americans just pwned by our ISP's?

thaneofcawdor

It isn't yet an issue here in Australia, in that we only have one wholesaler for the entire network, Telstra. They're (currently) majority government owned, and as such, are heavily regulated and overseen. I suppose it's possible they'd try and leverage their monopoly position to favour their own services when they achieve full privatisation, but it would be politically dangerous for the government that allowed it to happen, not to mention contrary to existing competition law.

deaf-mute

Availability of broadband in Austrlia is a problem, however. We had to wait a long time to be able to get it. Even then, we are on a subexchange, which means that it sucks to be us.


In Australia the major telephone company Telstra artificially limits ADSL speeds to 1.5 Mbit/s downstream and 256 kbit/s upstream. It is legally required to sell its ADSL service wholesale to other ISPs, but not its Cable network, which has a speed of 10 Mbit/s. Telstra refuses to provide wholesale Internet access to its Cable network, as does the other cable supplier, Optus. It is widely believed Telstra limits their ADSL speed to 1.5 Mbit/s as they want to ensure everybody can get the same speed of service. However Australia has regulated local loop unbundling and as such, other ISPs such as iiNet, Internode and Primus have installed their own DSLAMs in Telstra exchanges, offering customers speeds up to the ADSL limit of 8 Mbit/s. Internode, Adam Internet and iiNet have released and now provide ADSL2+ services at up to 24 Mbit/s [2]. Telstra have announced [3] their plans to offer ADSL2+ in 2006, but with their current ADSL speeds limited, it is likely their ADSL2+ service will not reach 24 Mbit/s either.


Although they are offering the decent speed internet, I don't actually know anybody who is able to get it. The fastest we can get is our 1.5mbps

Our 1.5 mbps connection has a limit of 20 GB peak and 20 GB off-peak (not enough :P ) and costs us AU$100 per month ($77)

I don't really know what you mean by you get pwned by your ISP's, though :P

thaneofcawdor

Agile (Internode) is one ISP I can think of that runs higher that 1.5 Mbit/s, because they've established their own hardware at local exchanges, mostly in Adelaide and major metro areas. The only reason why Telstra hasn't started a 24 Mbit/s+ service around the country is that they haven't even rolled out basic broadband to most areas yet. Once that's done, they may eventually roll it out. It won't happen where I live for at least 5-10 years, at a guesstimate.

I have a 512/128, 20 gb soft limit connection through Internode, no contracts, excellent support, if I have a problem with my router, they send me a new one via courier, with a satchel to send the old one back in, post paid. $50 a month.

The obscene thing is that if I was in an area that had ADSL2+, through Agile, it would be $80 for a 24000/1000 connection and 40 gb limit. It would be CHEAPER than the same 1500/512 connection, simply because of the monopoly rents broadband retailers have to pay to Telstra for their hardware!

EsonLinji

I used to be with TPG on a 512/128 unlimited plan for $80/month, which was pretty good, but a few months ago transfered to a uni isp for a 1500/256 connection at $90/month, but it hasn't been as reliable.

I agree that Telstra are a big hurdle in getting better overall service. We also have some "wont someone think of the children" senators wanting to interfere with things as well.

deaf-mute

Oh, man... We had unlimited before Dad wanted to upgrade... My Analogy was that we were putting rocket engines on a train, then building a brick wall 20 meters down the track. I loved that unlimited, I Downloaded an insane amount, and now I'm stuck with 20/20, shared with 2 other geeky individuals. And then everybody wonders why it goes slowly a few weeks into the month... And thats when I'm being careful with it :(

Those people who want to force ISPs to block adult content piss me off no end, especially since one of them complained about their service in the same sentence that he wanted them to ruin that same service. I wouldn't mind if they thought about what they were trying to make them do beforehand, but they just want to shit all over the ISPs ability to function...

Apreche

We pay $50 for optimum online. Iit's theoretically 6mbps down and 1mpbs up. They don't seem to do anything very evil. When I asked they were completely open with what ports they block and all that. The only thing they really do that's annoying is block port 25 outgoing, so you have to use their SMTP server or use something like gmail.

glimpster

My family has cox and we pay about $40 a month. Thing is, we're supposed to get 9mbps down and 1mbps up. Sadly, we're getting nowhere near that speed. I'm actually, 1.5mbps down and 256kbps up.

I've had them come out, I've contacted customer support, I've done everything, and they haven't fixed it. They just need to admit that they don't have that much speed to distribute. Whenever it comes out slower than what it's supposed to be, they just say we're lucky to get that much. Then, they go and check the network speed and say that it's going fast enough.

Just to explain, when you have cable, or dsl, there's a network over your neighborhood, then there's internet going over that network. What cox was doing, was checking the network speed, rather than checking the actual internet connection over the network, and saying it was the internet. With all this in mind, I'm switching over to DSL. At least it doesn't slow down when the people in your neighborhood are using it.