BitTorrent Considers Release of World Broadband ISP P2P Performance Report

[qubit]

BitTorrent, a technology company which is perhaps best known for its hugely popular Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing protocol (over 20 million average daily active users), has hinted that they could eventually release performance data for over 9,000 broadband ISPs around the world.

At present their unnamed project is still in the very early stages of development but could one day serve as a global ISP performance report. Several international content providers, such as Akamai, already release similar statistics but BitTorrent claims to have "data that is miles better--miles, miles better"

BitTorrent's VP of Products, Simon Morris, said (FastCompany):

"We have download traffic, upload traffic, BitTorrent traffic, and we have HTTP traffic. So we can answer questions like: I live in this city in the world--it could be anywhere, literally anywhere--which ISP should I use? Which is the fastest? Which ISP is messing with BitTorrent traffic? Because we have this data, we can see the difference in speeds by time of day.".

This sounds very useful indeed. One of the reasons I chose my current ISP is because they claimed not to throttle p2p in any way or censor the internet. I've checked out their non-throttling claim using the Glasnost test and found it to be true.

Glasnost: http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/glasnost.php

ISPreview article

CAUTION: Please do not let this thread veer off into a discussion on how to access illegal torrents or start flaming each other. In other words, let's not give our moderators something to moderate!

 

[TheMailMan78]

This sounds very useful indeed. One of the reasons I chose my current ISP is because they claimed not to throttle p2p in any way or censor the internet. I've checked out their non-throttling claim using the Glasnost test and found it to be true.

Glasnost: http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/glasnost.php

ISPreview article

CAUTION: Please do not let this thread veer off into a discussion on how to access illegal torrents or start flaming each other. In other words, let's not give our moderators something to moderate!

I don't see an issue in ISP throttling P2P. As long as they do not throttle VPN.

 

[qubit]

Why should p2p come in for special attention? It implies that it's somehow "wrong" when it isn't.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Why should p2p come in for special attention? It implies that it's somehow "wrong" when it isn't.

Its not wrong necessarily. But why should everyone on the block suffer if one guy is downloading 20 gigs of crap every day after 6pm? I think throttling is making the net equal. It also cuts down on some of the bullshit. Plus its their networks. We are just clients. They can change the rules anytime they want. Its well within their right.

 

[qubit]

Ok, I see where you're coming from, MM - it's purely a bandwidth management issue.

But then one can say that the ISP shouldn't oversell their network capacity and/or upgrade their infrastructure as necessary. In other words, they should be meeting that demand rather than constraining it.

However, there certainly does seem to be a grey area surrounding this issue and I don't claim to know all the answers. Hence, I do believe that ISPs widely ripoff their customers with unreasonable caps and overage charges, all to squeeze the maximum profit from their infrastructure and our pockets.

Two great UK sites that discuss all these issues are ISPreview above and www.thinkbroadband.com

 

[TheMailMan78]

Ok, I see where you're coming from, MM - it's purely a bandwidth management issue.

But then one can say that the ISP shouldn't oversell their network capacity and/or upgrade their infrastructure as necessary. In other words, they should be meeting that demand rather than constraining it.

However, there certainly does seem to be a grey area surrounding this issue and I don't claim to know all the answers. Hence, I do believe that ISPs widely ripoff their customers with unreasonable caps and overage charges, all to squeeze the maximum profit from their infrastructure and our pockets.

Two great UK sites that discuss all these issues are ISPreview above and www.thinkbroadband.com

Now caps I find to be ridiculous. But again its their networks and unless they are breaking any laws theres very little you can do about it. The sad fact is Internet capping only really effects enthusiasts and pirates. Joe Six-pack never even comes close to his cap.

As for upgrading their infrastructure its their discretion. They are not obligated to do so unless they stop providing the service they state. Problem is they can change the service they state at any given time. Is it "right"? Well thats debatable as many other industries already practice the same thing. To simplify it any restaurant can refuse service at anytime they want. The only thing they cannot refuse you is water. In the US anyway. Laws are different all over the world. My point is as long as there is no law being broken then ISP's own the interwebz.

 

[qubit]

All good points there, MM.

In other words, to fix this situation, stiff competition without cartelling or government "protection" is needed to force ISPs to give better value.

 

[kylzer]

Can't wait to see the uk reports lol