Re: Verizon Policy Statement on Net Neutrality

[Miles Fidelman <mfidelman () meetinghouse net>]

Naslund, Steve wrote:
> That statement completely confuses me.  Why is asymmetry evil?  Does that not reflect what "Joe Average User" actually needs and 
> wants? The statement that the average users *MUST* have the same pipes going UP as he does going DOWN does not reflect reality at all.  Do 
> a lot of your users want to stream 4K video to their friends UHD TV?  Given that all transmission media has some sort of bandwidth limit it 
> would seem to me that asymmetry is actually more fair for the user since he gets more of what he needs which is download speed.  There is 
> no technical reason that it can't be symmetric it is just a reflection of what the market wants.  As an ISP I can tell you that a lot 
> more people complaint about their download speeds than their upload speeds.  Do you think that you (or the average home user) would be 
> happier with 27.5 down and 27.5 up vs your 50 down and 5 up you have today?  Don't tell me you want 50 down and 50 up because that is 
> a different bandwidth total that requires a faster transmission media.
>
> Do you actually believe that average users are suffering with a 5 mbps upstream?  I don't. I just don't see the average user "freely 
> interchanging ideas" at more than 5 mbps.  I don't feel like "Big Brother" forced me to watch Netflix and my next door neighbor just 
> doesn't provide a lot of engaging HD content that I just must see.

From a user point of view, it's not so much asymmetry as it is low peak 
upload speeds, which hurt you for things like:
- network backup
- video conferencing (NOT an argument for symmetry, though - your only 
sending your stream, you're receiving multiple streams)
- uploading large files (5 minutes to upload the latest version of a 
report to the office, sending a large photo album or video of an event, 
particularly annoying, I expect to folks who shoot a lot of video

Having said all that, has anyone else noticed that Verizon has been 
pushing symmetric bandwidth in their new FIOS plans?  Not sure how well 
it's working though - a lot of the early deployment is BPON, which tops 
out at 155Mbps for uploads - theoretically, I have 25/25 service, but 
I've occasionally seen my uploads fall to 100kbps (yes that's a k).  
Highly intermittent though - Verizon's techs have been having lots of 
fun trying to track things down.

Miles Fidelman



--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra