UK ISP gets dick as new CEO. "Net neutrality is bollocks."

...

Goddamn. Some greedy bastard becomes CEO of the second largest ISP in the UK and instantly goes charging content providers for faster delivery of their content. WTF?!

lackofcheese

Oh god. I hope loads of their customers switch ISP as a form of protest.

Norvu

Jeez, looks like I'll have to stop using Virgin Media then. I've been a customer of theirs since 1999.

chaosof99

Is that even legal?

Omnutia

Ready Ofcom missiles two through five. Fire!
Somewhat ironically, someone else things virgin media is bollocks (OKFW) too.
They already sappin' my bandwidth speed between 4pm and midnight. I'm going to try petitioning my parents to switch to Be Broadband.

evilhuman

I've had no problems at any time of the day with my connection or speed thereof, when they were Telewest or now they are Virgin-owned. Only totally solid connection I've had since broadband first became prevalent.

So that makes this all the more disappointing. But I'm not dropping the best connection I've had immediately, but watching what they do. If more happens than "talks with content providers" I'm out.

Norvu

Yeah, I'm the same way. Been with Telewest for so long and even still have my original modem box! It's the only DSL connection I can get I believe, any thing else will be ADSL. I've been looking at "Be internet", they seem like a solid company but I'm not within range of their service.

The CEO has already said "Get over it, this is happened", even going as far to say he's already in talks with several companies.

I really don't see how this will work though, only a minutia of companies will do this and even LESS will once more ISP's start. What kind of company is going to pay a fee to ALL the service providers to have good website speeds? I can't see this working in the long run, but if it does, I can see people going with the random third party that pops up run by people who like the internet as much as we do.

evilhuman

Well bearing in mind there is no genuine extra cost to be covered for the ISP, even if content providers are paying small, affordable amounts the ISP is making money. If they leave it there then we have overall bandwidth at any given time, unless accessing services covered by deals.

Beyond that, they can then "legitimately" advertise an express iTunes access service for example and charge the customer for that. So the ISP makes money at both ends of the pipeline and the cost to content providers can be low enough to be offset by new customers attracted by these targeted services. I can't imagine a large number of people would actually take them up on such packages but I guess you never know.

Norvu

http://stopvirgin.movielol.org/

Conan-San

Ready Ofcom missiles two through five. Fire!
Somewhat ironically, someone else things virgin media isbollocks(OKFW) too.
They already sappin' my bandwidth speed between 4pm and midnight. I'm going to try petitioning my parents to switch toBe Broadband.

Ofcom are useless. They don't do shit for no one except ensureing that Naruto is an even worse mess than it normally is.

I know this as I complained about a show being factually incorrect and downright sensationalist (about video games FYI) and they just turned around, shrugged their soldiers and gave me the emotional equivalent of a pat to the head like I was a small child.

They are about as much use as the BBFC, IMHO.

Omnutia

It's a rant show, not statistical analysis.

Conan-San

It's a rant show, not statistical analysis.

I don't care if was Jack Thompson talking about Custer's fucking Revenge. It was utter nonsense and it thrashed everything that doesn't support the UK becoming Germany version 2 in regards to game regulation.

Omnutia

If I get round to it I'll listen to the episode. Your complaint has been noted.