Comments on: Unmetered Internet Is Not A Civil Right http://www.symphonious.net/2008/06/16/metered-internet-is-not-a-civil-right/ Living in a state of accord. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:41:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Alastair http://www.symphonious.net/2008/06/16/metered-internet-is-not-a-civil-right/comment-page-1/#comment-163908 Alastair Tue, 17 Jun 2008 02:59:51 +0000 http://www.symphonious.net/?p=870#comment-163908 Definitely agree Adrian. Whatever the adverse effect on innovation caused by bandwidth quotas, it is insignificant in comparison to the effect caused by <a href="http://girtby.net/archives/2008/6/4/twitter-over-ip" rel="nofollow">other factors</a>. Specifically, the end-to-end principle is all but dead and this really <em>has</em> changed the dynamics which have make the Internet work. Bandwidth quotas however do not violate this principle. An up-front quota seems to be vastly preferable to behind-the-scenes throttling and shaping, which I understand is quite common amongst some US ISPs. (Not that the two are mutually-exclusive of course...) As you say, for some time we've had download quotas here in Australia, but recently some ISPs have started putting quotas on uploads as well. I think this is a less defensible practice, as it is not (AFAIK anyway) representative of the underlying cost to the ISPs. Definitely agree Adrian. Whatever the adverse effect on innovation caused by bandwidth quotas, it is insignificant in comparison to the effect caused by other factors. Specifically, the end-to-end principle is all but dead and this really has changed the dynamics which have make the Internet work. Bandwidth quotas however do not violate this principle.

An up-front quota seems to be vastly preferable to behind-the-scenes throttling and shaping, which I understand is quite common amongst some US ISPs. (Not that the two are mutually-exclusive of course…)

As you say, for some time we’ve had download quotas here in Australia, but recently some ISPs have started putting quotas on uploads as well. I think this is a less defensible practice, as it is not (AFAIK anyway) representative of the underlying cost to the ISPs.

]]>