Re: Verizon Policy Statement on Net Neutrality

[Jack Bates <jbates () paradoxnetworks net>]

On 2/28/2015 10:28 AM, Scott Helms wrote:
> Steve,
>
> My point is that for lots and lots of people their uplink is not "so low".
> Even when I look at users with 25/25 and 50/50, many of the have been at
> those rates for >3 years we don't see changes in traffic patterns nor
> satisfaction as compared to users at similar download rates but lower
> uplink rates as long as we don't go below ~5 mbps on the uplink.
> On Feb 28, 2015 10:46 AM, "Steve Clark" <sclark () netwolves com> wrote:
Of course you don't, and as long as we don't work towards fixing the 
problem, you will continue to see this.

It's limitation of the masses. Developers generally base things on what 
the most number of users/customers can support. Consider the gaming 
industry. There are a LOT of PC games that now get substandard 
resolution textures because the textures were developed with a console 
in mind and they didn't want to spend extra having a PC specialized 
texture pack (for those few who have good graphics cards). There are 
more PC games for Windows than other operating systems. We are now 
starting to see better support for OSX and Linux; though it's still 
rather low.

Consider skype group video calls. The download requirements change but 
the upload does not. This leads me to believe they are using an 
intermediate server. That is VERY un-skype-like in my opinion, but then 
they have to deal with what will work for a majority of the people.

If a majority of the people had 50meg/50meg, skype development would 
probably support p2p for group video with HD support. In fact, it could 
be more versatile as each connection could negotiate what it feels is 
appropriate based on the limits of the sender and the recipient. This 
would be a good example of symmetric usage.

However, with the masses still at 5meg or lower on upload, it would be 
silly to bother with. Just throw it to a rebroadcasting server and use 
the bandwidth there.

It's not just about what's available, though. it's also about the users 
themselves. Usage of the average 80 year old is different than the 
average 40 year old. The current teenager definitely has different usage.

In many ways, the bandwidth problem isn't much different than the NAT 
problems. Running servers and using bandwidth to compensate for edge 
network weaknesses is not ideal. When a majority do not suffer the 
problem, those who are in the minority will be told to complain to their 
ISP or "unsupported".


Jack