Category Archives: Bandwidth Management
Netflix Internet Film Subscription Service Finally Goes LIVE in the UK – Estimated to account for “nearly a third” of all peak downstream internet traffic
The “all-you-can-eat” service is available on a raft of different devices from computers (Mac, Windows), to games consoles (Sony PS3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360), mobile phones (Android , iPhone) and related tablets. As usual the video quality will depend upon your broadband speed.
According to Netflix, its films come with three different video quality settings (based on Microsoft Silverlight technology). The lowest quality requires a “minimum speed” of 500Kbps (0.5Mbps) and will consume up to 0.3GB/hour of data. By contrast the High Definition (HD) stream eats up to 2.3GB/hour and will need a stable speed of about 5Mbps.
Infinera, a firm that aims to provide the world’s most economically compelling optical networks, has warned that Netflix represents “a huge challenge” for telecoms providers and is estimated to account for “nearly a third” of all peak downstream internet traffic.
One Percent of Mobile Broadband Users Eat Half of all Data Capacity
iPhone 4S owners use twice as much data as their iPhone 4-using brethren, and nearly three times as much as iPhone 3G users
The data is part of an overall trend of growing data usage among smartphone owners, with Arieso warning that data congestion issues among cell networks will worsen throughout 2012.
Amsterdam Internet Exchange Breaches 300,000 Terabyte Barrier For Incoming And Outgoing Traffic…In One Month
Dutch language news article:
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/79076/providers-doorbreken-300000tb-grens-via-ams-ix.html
Mobile Data Traffic In The Netherlands Triples On New Year’s Eve. T-Mobile Users Generating 6.2 Terabytes Worth Of Mobile Data Between 10 pm and 4 am
KPN, Vodafone and T-Mobile release statistics. Three times more traffic than on a normal day. Two times more traffic when compared to last year
Dutch language news article:
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/79072/providers-zien-verdubbeling-mobiele-data-tijdens-jaarwisseling.html
New Year’s Celebrations In The East, Kill Twitter In The West. WhatsApp also in trouble
Twitter in The Netherlands down half the day
Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2705125/twitter-tijdens-jaarwisseling-ontoegankelijk-wegens-onderhoud.html
Good Broadband Helps to Boost the UK Top 50 Places to Live for Quality of Life
Internet Braces For Stream-Only Netflix – traffic will jump by 50 percent
During peak hours — after dinner time until around midnight — Netflix already accounts for somewhere between 20 and 30 percent of all US Internet traffic. So what will happen to the Internet if the 14 million Netflix subscribers who send and receive DVDs via the mail suddenly start streaming everything they watch?
Well, that traffic will jump by 50 percent, according to Thomas Barnett, Senior Manager of thought leadership marketing at Cisco. Barnett’s team spends their time thinking about the future of the Internet’s traffic, so his guess is as good as anyone’s when it comes to this subject.
That’s a big chunk of traffic, for network providers that are already seeing data jump at 30 to 40 percent per year, but it’s not enough to crush the newtwork, Barnett says. “It might fill up the pipes a bit more, but the network capacity is there,” he says.
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/12/netflix-internet/
KPN, like Vodafone and T-Mobile, expects Google, Facebook and Apple to pay for network maintenance. Pirate Bay and Megaupload to follow?
Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2695064/kpn-wil-geld-van-apple-en-google-onderhoud-netwerk.html
Dutch Telecom Operator KPN: Only If We Introduce 40 EUR Per Month Subscriptions Will We Be Able To Continue To Invest In Our Network Infrastructure
Dutch language news article:
http://www.geenstijl.nl/mt/archieven/2011/12/kpn_abonnementen_moeten_duurde.html
AT&T’s Throttling of Data Hogs Now In Effect
New Report Debunks The ‘Bandwidth Hog’ Myth
The idea is that a monthly quota can reduce the amount of network congestion during peak hours throughout the month. Fact or fiction?
Cisco: Don’t Blame Netflix for the Zettaflood
BE Wholesale Fears 2012 Olympic Games Could Crash Office Broadband Networks
Digital Agenda: European Commission presses 16 Member States to implement new EU telecoms rules
The European Commission has written to sixteen Member States which have failed to fully implement new EU telecoms rules into national law, six months after the deadline to do so (25 May 2011). Partial implementation of the EU Telecoms rules limit consumers’ rights in these 16 Member States. The new rules give EU customers new rights regarding fixed telephony, mobile services and Internet access. For instance, the right to switch telecoms operators in one day without changing their phone number and the right to clarity about data traffic management practices employed by Internet Service Providers. There is now also better protection of privacy and personal data online (see IP/11/622 , MEMO/11/319 , MEMO/11/320 and MEMO/11/321 ).
The Commission’s requests today take the form of “reasoned opinions.” Member States which do not fully implement the new laws risk referral to the EU’s Court of Justice and potential financial penalties. The 16 Member States are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain.
The European Commission has concluded that it would not be appropriate, at this stage, to set at EU level a single broadband connection speed under the universal service rules
Net Neutrality: Mobile Broadband Suppliers Discriminate Against BitTorrent
Study Finds Huge Decline in Broadband ISP Speeds During UK Peak Usage Periods
The latest uSwitch survey has used data gathered from 2 million internet speedtests to reveal that broadband ISP download speeds in the UK fall by an average of 35% (6.2Mbps) during periods of peak usage (between 7pm and 9pm), when most people go online. By contrast people who surf between 2am and 3am were found to experience the fastest broadband speeds (average of 9.6Mbps).
EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes: ‘All too often it’s said that broadband speeds are not at the level promised (…) Consumers need to know what the situation is’
Statement at 3:45 secs
Dutch language article, English language video
http://webwereld.nl/video/108540/world-tech-update–hackers-contoleren-isp-s–video-.html
Verizon Wants to Fix Crappy Data Speeds by Selling You a Turbo Bandwidth Button
Study Reveals UK ISP DPI Throttling of BitTorrent P2P File Sharing Internet Traffic
According to Mueller’s data, BT and TalkTalk were the most prolific throttlers of P2P traffic. This will not come as much of a surprise because both have Fair Usage Policies (FUP) that state similar restrictions. Note that we have only included data from four UK ISPs as the sample size for others was simply too small to be reliable (Glasnost can sometimes generate false positives).
Rank. ISP NAME – (% of Tests Showing DPI in Q1-2010)
1. BT – (27%)
2. TalkTalk – (12%)
3. O2 – (8%)
4. Virgin Media – (6%)
It’s worth remembering that the degree to which Traffic Management is used can vary depending upon your package type, broadband platform (LLU, BT, cable etc.) and whether or not you’re running the test(s) during a peak or off-peak period; throttling is more common during busy periods. This is why some tests, even if the ISP uses DPI, won’t always show throttling.
With so many new DPI technologies on the market, vendors must find ways to differentiate their solutions in order to stay afloat
“DPI and systems using DPI technology are increasingly common within telecom operator networks,” notes Simon Sherrington, research analyst with Heavy Reading Insider and author of the report. “A range of specialist vendors sell solutions that use DPI as a base to enable traffic management, traffic shaping, creation of sophisticated charging packages, quality of experience management and improved network protection, and they have been joined by the biggest telecom network equipment providers (NEPs) that are providing similar solutions.”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dpi-vendors-must-differentiate-to-make-their-mark-2011-10-14
Hundreds of ISPs all over the world limit and restrict BitTorrent traffic on their networks. Unfortunately, most companies are not very open about their network management solutions
In 2009 Dutch internet provider UPC has throttled down 40% of P2P traffic on its network
Other traffic got priority. Other Dutch internet service providers were throttling down 10% of their P2P traffic
Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2646613/upc-kneep-40-procent-bittorrentverkeer-af.html
ISPs Report Internet Traffic Surge as Apple iPhone Owners Rush for iOS5 Update
ISP Vispa Internet last night reported that “almost 17% of [our] network is being consumed by customers downloading apple ios5“. Meanwhile the London Access Point (LONAP), a neutral not-for-profit Internet Exchange Point based in London, noted a “massive amount of extra traffic” in its graph for Wednesday (below).
New EU laws on net neutrality may be necessary to stop internet service providers (ISPs) from infringing individuals’ data protection and privacy rights, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has said
Peter Hustinx said that EU telecoms regulators should monitor whether ISPs are complying with EU data protection and privacy laws when managing communications across their networks.
AT&T Begins Sending Throttling Warnings to Top Data Hogs
ASA UK Publishes New Broadband ISP Speed and Unlimited Use Advertising Rules
TalkTalk’s P2P Throttling Kills OnLive Games
Respect My Net – name and shame operators restricting access to the Internet
Large telecommunication providers want to control what you do online. They want to block and throttle some of your communications, and charge you to use certain online services, content and applications.
Now is the time to fight back!
Help us chart all the ways that internet providers are violating our online freedom. Tell us about how your landline or mobile operator Internet provider restricts your connection. You can do so in less than two minutes!
We will report these violations to the European Commission and national authorities and demand action to address them.
Canadian Telecom Regulator: Rogers Communications must come up with a scheme to avoid the “misclassification” of interactive game traffic, so that its network management system won’t shape and slow World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2, and other popular games
Study Finds Big UK ISPs Still Failing to Publicise Broadband Upload Speeds
American transit operator Cogent has filed an interesting complaint against internet service provider Orange before the French competition authority, the Autorité de la Concurrence (AC). Orange is accused of slowing down access to certain sites of Cogent customers, one of which is MegaUpload
MegaUpload is a file hosting service, where users can upload and download files. Because many, if not most of the popular files uploaded and downloaded from MegaUpload are large files such as pirated movies and games, MegaUpload, which is run by the convicted hacker Kim Schmitz, generates immense amounts of Internet traffic. It is estimated that about 75% of all traffic from cyberlockers is infringing, and it is suspected that that figure is even higher for MegaUpload.
