On Apr 8, 2010, at 4:20 PM, Parks, Raymond wrote:
<snip>
As for Owen's BitTorrent question - ISPs can detect BitTorrent solely
from volume of traffic and behaviour. It's pretty obvious.
Comcast, in
particular, established a policy that limited the total amount of
bandwidth per month at a level far above the average user but which
does
infringe on heavy BitTorrent users.
So if I use Amazon or Netflix or Hulu for say 4 hours/day, would that
still be within the average case scenario? Or if I used video
conferencing and/or skype for hours a day.
I gotta believe Comcast would dislike my using their bandwidth for a
competing use like telephone and TV, both of which they sell. This
smells like Comcast is testing the waters to see if they can get away
with it.
The internet is seeing a huge burst of usage for audio/video. The
iPad is so great for it that its certainly upped my use. Slingbox
will forward my TiVo recordings to me in Italy so that I can watch the
NFL playoffs (real story). Thing like AppleTV and the Amazon Roku
players, along with any number of stunts to use "computer streaming"
to your TV are making many just broadband from Comcast. Heck, my new
TV has Netflix and Amazon streaming built in! Its lower quality than
a download to TiVo/Roku, but not bad.
So I smell a fish here big time. The FCC may have made an error in
the past which weakened their jurisdiction, but I think they can
reverse that. I think instead Comcast is protecting their TV, and
Quest their phone markets. Verizon's FiOS could also be in the mix
here, posing a threat to Comcast and Quest as their services are
easily provided over the net.
-- Owen
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
