Apps and Software By Russell Holly Feb. 5, 2014 1:46 pm
The worst case scenario when it comes to a recent ruling on net neutrality may already be reality for some Verizon FIOS users, and there’s very little that can be done about it.
The hallmark of net neutrality is that everything is treated equally. Emails, advertisements, streaming video, instant messages, and uploaded photos are all treated exactly the same when traveling from place to place. Without net neutrality, service providers could decide that photos aren’t a priority, and if you wanted them to be a priority you’d have to pay extra. Alternatively, the provider could go to the company hosting your photos and tell them to pay up if they wanted photos to be a priority on their network.
There are a lot of potential problems that come from a world where all forms of traffic are not equals. It’s something that could stifle innovation, cause dramatic spikes in the cost of certain web services, and in a general sense make a huge mess of the internet as we know it right now. Recently there was a court case whose implications have not yet been fully realized, and as a result there’s growing concern that companies like Verizon will use this to cause a number of very real problems.
What would happen if tomorrow Verizon decided that Netflix, or any other service that relies on the Amazon AWS cloud computing system, would only be allowed to use a certain amount of bandwidth when delivering content to your house? Even if you had an amazing high speed connection, using Netflix felt like you were on DSL because the service was limited externally by Verizon.
One user in particular had been experiencing poor performance when streaming Netflix, and decided to look into it. It turns out that he and his boss were both Verizon FIOS customers and were both experience terrible quality issues even though every speed test showed they had an otherwise fantastic connection. After a preliminary investigation which yielded very little helpful information, he reached out to Verizon’s technical support for help. That representative told him that cloud services were being intentionally limited by Verizon, and there was nothing that could be done to resolve this.
Now, if history has taught us anything it’s that technical support reps can’t be trusted. It’s highly unlikely that he was told by a superior that cloud services were being limited, and if you showed that conversation to the next rep over you’d be given a different story. It’s entirely possible that what is happening here is a routing issue resulting from a faulty connection in a colo-hotel somewhere. In fact, if you search support boards in different areas of the US you’d find these same results regarding Google services as opposed to Netflix or Verizon. Network issues like this are difficult to track down when they happen.
There’s very little actual evidence to suggest that Verizon is intentionally limiting the delivery capabilities of Amazon AWS servers, and this is not the sort of thing Netflix has a history of keeping quiet about. Given how thoroughly they monitor things from their end if there was a wide spread issue Netflix would be quick to tell everyone. Unfortunately, thanks to the recent decision by the courts that made this behavior ok, it’s possible that Verizon is doing this intentionally as a pilot test for something much worse.
Update: It’s worth noting that Verizon has denied any throttling of Netflix or any cloud services. A Verizon rep noted that, “We treat all traffic equally, and that has not changed.”
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The hallmark of net neutrality is that everything is treated equally. Emails, advertisements, streaming video, instant messages, and uploaded photos are all treated exactly the same when traveling from place to place. Without net neutrality, service providers could decide that photos aren’t a priority, and if you wanted them to be a priority you’d have to pay extra. Alternatively, the provider could go to the company hosting your photos and tell them to pay up if they wanted photos to be a priority on their network.
There are a lot of potential problems that come from a world where all forms of traffic are not equals. It’s something that could stifle innovation, cause dramatic spikes in the cost of certain web services, and in a general sense make a huge mess of the internet as we know it right now. Recently there was a court case whose implications have not yet been fully realized, and as a result there’s growing concern that companies like Verizon will use this to cause a number of very real problems.
What would happen if tomorrow Verizon decided that Netflix, or any other service that relies on the Amazon AWS cloud computing system, would only be allowed to use a certain amount of bandwidth when delivering content to your house? Even if you had an amazing high speed connection, using Netflix felt like you were on DSL because the service was limited externally by Verizon.
One user in particular had been experiencing poor performance when streaming Netflix, and decided to look into it. It turns out that he and his boss were both Verizon FIOS customers and were both experience terrible quality issues even though every speed test showed they had an otherwise fantastic connection. After a preliminary investigation which yielded very little helpful information, he reached out to Verizon’s technical support for help. That representative told him that cloud services were being intentionally limited by Verizon, and there was nothing that could be done to resolve this.
Now, if history has taught us anything it’s that technical support reps can’t be trusted. It’s highly unlikely that he was told by a superior that cloud services were being limited, and if you showed that conversation to the next rep over you’d be given a different story. It’s entirely possible that what is happening here is a routing issue resulting from a faulty connection in a colo-hotel somewhere. In fact, if you search support boards in different areas of the US you’d find these same results regarding Google services as opposed to Netflix or Verizon. Network issues like this are difficult to track down when they happen.
There’s very little actual evidence to suggest that Verizon is intentionally limiting the delivery capabilities of Amazon AWS servers, and this is not the sort of thing Netflix has a history of keeping quiet about. Given how thoroughly they monitor things from their end if there was a wide spread issue Netflix would be quick to tell everyone. Unfortunately, thanks to the recent decision by the courts that made this behavior ok, it’s possible that Verizon is doing this intentionally as a pilot test for something much worse.
Update: It’s worth noting that Verizon has denied any throttling of Netflix or any cloud services. A Verizon rep noted that, “We treat all traffic equally, and that has not changed.”
More...
