UPC, which seems to be an otherwise pretty technologically advanced service provider, said that it would be throttling all non-HTTP traffic to a third of the speed of other stuff. And if your HTTP is going too fast for UPC, they’ll throttle that, too. This is coming from a company that advertises speeds of up to 120 Mbps for €70 a month. According to UPC, they have to throttle bandwidth because some small percentage of users is causing network congestion for the majority.
First off, this is a severe pile of bullshit. UPC is has some big ol’ pipes for its bandwidth. So I’m thinking that any claims of network congestion are bogus. And to make matters worse, UPC is claiming that customers are still getting unlimited bandwidth. If you’re cutting off the rate at which I can get bits from around the web to my computer, you’re throttling my bandwidth. This is not arguable.
Just to remind everyone, non-HTTP does not imply filesharing. UPC’s move is going to affect VoIP traffic, messing with Skype and other such applications, and FTP traffic, which I would imagine is going to piss off a lot of people who are shelling out for that 120 Mbps connection (it’s UPC’s highest offered tier).
I’m hoping that UPC will end up ushering in some net neutrality laws over in Europe. On the whole, the world desperately needs them, especially considering how so many countries seem eager to pass laws to the contrary.
(Info via Ars Technica)
