Re: Cogent admits to QoSing down streaming

[Owen DeLong <owen () delong com>]

The way I read it was that Cogent actually made things look artificially better for M-Labs while simultaneously making 
it much worse for one subset of their users and somewhat better for others.

I would suggest that if we get the educational process right, we should be able to explain that the point where you’re 
having to select traffic to prioritize is the point where your network is inadequate to the task at hand and should be 
upgraded.

I don’t see any reason we shouldn’t be able to use this article as a prime example of a provider doing the wrong thing 
instead of fixing the real problem — Congestion at exchange points.

Owen

> On Nov 6, 2014, at 8:12 AM, Patrick W. Gilmore <patrick () ianai net> wrote:
>
> <http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/11/cogent-now-admits-slowed-netflixs-traffic-creating-fast-lane-slow-lane.html>
>
> This is interesting. And it will be detrimental to network neutrality supporters. Cogent admits that while they were 
> publicly complaining about other networks congesting links, they were using QoS to make the problem look worse.
>
> One of the problems in "tech" is most people do not realize tone is important, not just substance. There was - still 
> is! - congestion in many places where consumers have one or at most two choice of providers. Even in places where 
> there are two providers, both are frequently congested. Instead of discussing the fact there is no functioning 
> market, no choice for the average end user, and how to fix it, we will now spend a ton of time arguing whether 
> anything is wrong at all because Cogent did this.
>
> Wouldn't you rather be discussing whether 4 Mbps is really broadband? (Anyone else have flashbacks to "640K is enough 
> for anyone!"?) Or how many people have more than one choice at 25 Mbps? Or whether a company with a terminating 
> access monopoly can intentionally congest its edge to charge monopoly rents on the content providers their paying 
> customers are trying to access? I know I would.
>
> Instead, we'll be talking about how things are not really bad, Cogent just made it look bad on purpose. The subtlety 
> of "it _IS_ bad, Cogent just shifted some of the burden from VoIP to streaming" is not something that plays well in a 
> 30 second sound bite, or at congressional hearings.
>
> It's enough to make one consider giving up the idea of having a functioning, useful Internet.
>
> -- 
> TTFN,
> patrick