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kick in the pants
Japanese ISP Institutes Upload Cap of 30GB… Per Day
While everyone is up in arms about US ISPs such as Comcast instituting bandwidth caps that'll keep you from downloading all the sweet, sweet data that you want, what about telcos in Japan? Well, they're going to start instituting caps as well. Oh, the horror? What is it, 25GB a month? 50GB? No, actually. NTT Communications is going to start instituting an upload cap of 30GB… per day. I'm pretty sure if I was uploading at max speed at all times I couldn't hit 30GB a day. More »
at&t
AT&T chief tech officer John Donovan has told Wired that they're going to test bandwidth caps in the fall, making them the third of the four major ISPs to do so. (Verizon stands alone, but for how long?) He lays out the familiar rationale, a small group of users (5 percent) pillage the network (40 percent) and they've got to stop them. But then he slips what's probably the real reason they've moving to caps: "Traffic on our backbone is growing 60 percent per year, but our revenue is not."
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Welcome to the Future of Broadband: Third Major ISP AT&T Testing Bandwidth Caps in the Fall
AT&T chief tech officer John Donovan has told Wired that they're going to test bandwidth caps in the fall, making them the third of the four major ISPs to do so. (Verizon stands alone, but for how long?) He lays out the familiar rationale, a small group of users (5 percent) pillage the network (40 percent) and they've got to stop them. But then he slips what's probably the real reason they've moving to caps: "Traffic on our backbone is growing 60 percent per year, but our revenue is not."
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isps
Are You Getting Screwed? Quick-Glance ISP Pricing Chart
Electronic House has done some serious homework, compiling price, bandwidth and plan information from most US ISPs, from sluggy dial-up to hyperspeedy fiber. (I couldn't spot Cablevision, but there were others I hadn't even heard of.) Due to cable build-out and the territorial nature of phone companies, you can't do as much comparison shopping as the charts would suggest. And man, wouldn't I love it if it were a sortable database where I could see all my options by region? Wishlist aside, though, it's a very helpful resource for, say, figuring out if you're getting screwed by an older monthly rate. I, myself, will be making a customer-service call shortly. [EH]
internet
Charter to Sell Your Browsing History for Targeted Ads
It's one thing when Google uses your search for boobs to deliver targeted ads for plastic surgeons in your area. It's another when your ISP uses deep-packet inspection to snoop on which sites you visit and for how long, and then essentially sells that data to advertisers for super-targeted. That's exactly what Charter is about to do, calling it an "enhanced online experience." Naturally, the program is opt-out, not opt-in, so you've gotta take the initiative to hang on to one last shred of privacy. And no, they're not passing on the money they're making off your browsing habits in the form of discounts. Oh, this better not migrate to other ISPs like pay-per-byte billing. [DSL Reports via Consumerist Photo via Getty]
speculation
FCC to Force ISPs to Reveal P2P Blockage and Real World Bandwidth Speeds
Last night, the FCC held its Comcast-less do-over hearing on net neutrality. While the FCC doesn't appear to be super gung-ho on government-enforced net neutrality, the smoke signals indicate that they're leaning toward forcing ISPs to be completely transparent about their network practices, telling you whether they block BitTorrent and how fast your connection is in real-world conditions, not fantasy-land speeds that only spike when the planets align. More »
comcast
Comcast Wants a P2P Bill of Rights: Should You Be Excited or Afraid?
Comcast officially loves P2P as much as George Washington loves freedom. It's calling for an industry-wide P2P bill of rights and responsibilities that would cover ISPs and users and "clarify what choices and controls consumers should have...as well as what processes and practices ISPs should use to manage P2P applications." Furthermore, as they stated earlier, Comcast is pushing for protocol agnostic management, more bandwidth and more transparency. Sounds groovy, but here's why we don't think they're doing this just to make your 30 Rock torrent experience a silky smooth ride. More »
orwellian gobbledygook
Tomorrow FBI Will Be Jacked Into Everyone's Internets
Tomorrow is the deadline for ISPs to have their networks wired up with G-Man-mandated surveillance equipment that will make it easier for the FBI to snoop, spy and wiretap the Intertubes, per the FCC's expanded 2002 interpretation of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. (Clearly an older law, since it does not make for a catchy acronym.) More »
home entertainment
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF, has responded to the RIAA's new method of extorting money from people, and, surprise surprise, they don't like it. They take issue not only with the fact that this whole operation is designed to circumvent the law, but also that the RIAA is asking ISPs to keep track of IP records of potential pirates.
EFF Responds to RIAA's New ISP Bully Tactics
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF, has responded to the RIAA's new method of extorting money from people, and, surprise surprise, they don't like it. They take issue not only with the fact that this whole operation is designed to circumvent the law, but also that the RIAA is asking ISPs to keep track of IP records of potential pirates.EFF and others have long warned that copyright claims could become an altar on which personal privacy is sacrificed. Now the RIAA wants your ISP to voluntarily wield the knife, and there's no telling what else the RIAA might ask for once this cut has been made.It is indeed a slippery slope, one that we really don't want to be sliding down. The notion of a non-governmental agency having the power to strong-arm its way into your personal internet surfing history is scary, especially when you aren't even notified that it's happening. This could open the door to huge abuses of privacy, turning our private web use into a goldmine not only for greedy sleazebuckets like the RIAA but also greedy sleazebucket marketer researchers and advertisers. More »
