Verizon CTO: Broadband Throttling is Inevitable
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: Verizon, Internet, Broadband, FCC | Themes: The Internet, Business
Will Internet service providers eventually throttle the World Wide Web? That's what Verizon's Chief Technology Officer is claiming, adding that the Internet cannot continue to grow without passing the cost on to someone. Telephony Online is reporting that CTO Richard Lynch delivered these words of wisdom during the 2009 FTTH Conference & Expo press conference, providing a glimpse into the company's future plans for its broadband services.
Does that mean current Verizon customers should prepare for the worst: a throttled Internet? According to Lynch, the concept of a flat-rated "infinitely expanding service for everyone" just cannot work much longer. In the eyes of ISPs, consumers can't expect to stream large chunks of content, hogging bandwidth, without helping out with the cost. That makes sense: taxpayers are ultimately flipping the bill for wider roads and new extensions, and broadband surfers may have to apply that same concept to the ever-growing Internet.
“We are going to reach a point where we will sell packages of bytes,” Lynch said, referring to possible premium broadband offerings. “Now I’m not announcing a new pricing plan. But we have already gone this way in wireless because that is where the resource is most constrained.”
With the FCC pursuing net neutrality, Lynch and Verizon are hoping that the government isn't looking to limit its ability to offer premium bandwidth packages in addition to the public Internet service. However, Lynch is worried that the current net neutrality push will only make things worse for consumers rather than improving the way ISPs handle broadband and wireless subscriptions.
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This blows.
Bunch of bs is you ask me. If these management types weren't so greedy to begin with, and put the profits where they belong, into the company and not their pockets, there would be no problem supporting expanding bandwidth. Especially since it keeps getting cheaper.
We need more internets!
Sure, throttle broadband. However don't charge me on a flow rate if you are capping me on a quantity - charge me by the quantity instead. After all, that is what they do with cell phone usage - they charge me for the quantity of minutes I use, not the speed of the connection I get.
The ISP's declined stimulus moneys that could be used for this purpose.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/08/ [...] lus-money/
What's inevitable is that they'll always find more ways of making more money on problems that don't really exist. They want to expand broadband services for more people? Build more servers. Duh.
I want to see hard data on how increased usage generates more costs for them.
So where does all that money I pay each month go?
Apparently GD nowhere!
Sounds like FIOS isn't the savior everyone thought it was (Including me)
Too bad, I was looking forward to FIOS availability in my area, I guess it doesn't really matter if FIOS wants to go the timewarner and comcast way.
They are simply "buttering" people up for their new bullshit pricing plans. Their 5 GB caps on their wireless broadband(of which I am sadly a customer) are shit horrible and overpriced. It is wrong to charge customer $20 more each month for a small fraction on the bandwidth their wired customers get.
Eventually, cellular phone pricing will change to a flat fee-based, instead of per-minute plans and ISPs will go from flat fee-based pricing to per-minute or per-kilobyte or megabyte micro-payments. This might sound good, but it will end up increasing customer cost significantly.
One technology will progress and another will regress. I am all for capitalism, but this is where it goes wrong.
WE are already being charged for the internet in service charges and access fees. The companies are charging more than enough to continue improving the service that we are paying for. Sounds like they are getting greedy.
I want to see hard data on how increased usage generates more costs for them.
I would not hold my breath, if I were you. Even if you got to see some "hard data", how could you be sure it was trustworthy? I am with you, I would like to see how it increases their cost, but I am sure we all know the answer to that question. If we do not, let me assist you with it.
When looking at a customer by customer basis, a little more traffic flow does not increase cost. It is like a cellular customer talking a few minutes past their allotted plan minutes. A few minutes for that one customer does not hurt them, as it is just extra airtime and minutes cost the companies nothing to make.
The problem comes when you look at entire markets or total company customer bases. You can only fit so much data down one pipe before it gets log-jammed and you have to improve your network. Of course, I do not believe that ISPs have reached a saturation point, but I do believe they have looked at the data and believe they will lose profits due to their procrastination on improving their networks. Due to this, we(the customers) are made to suffer.
Time will tell and we will just have to wait and see what happens in the near future. My guess is, sadly, that this issue will only get worse. I would like to be proved wrong, but I doubt I will.
I'm serious, get rid of porn on the internet, and there will be enough traffic flow for everyone.
But I was only half way done... HALF WAY!!! WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!
Not playin around here, give us back or pron!!!
Haha lol couldn't resist:-)
I'm serious, get rid of porn on the internet, and there will be enough traffic flow for everyone.
I'll do ya one better. Start charging... ohh say a penny per email sent. Lets clear the nets of spam first. Keep your hands off my porn please!
...instead of throttling to "ration" bandwidth, expand your network.
If they put revenue toward improving and expanding infrastructure instead of pocketing it, we'd never encounter this problem. It's because these systems are outdated and failing that these problems are starting to arise. With the amount of profit most of these companies make, they could easily redo their entire system over the course of a few years and accomodate all the bandiwidth needed for the next 20. Why haven't they? Greed.
Business 101-
Take care of customers, and they'll take care of you.
You CAN grow your profits, Verizon- by taking care of us customers!
Make us happy, we will refer your service. This is something you'd expect on AT&T's part..
Another interesting fact showing what total crap this is:
A 100 MILE fiber-optic cable can transfer 1.75TERABYTES PER SECOND. To put that in perspective, a 2 hour 1080p video is about 7 gigs. That means you could send 250 copies of a high-def movie PER SECOND.
Oh... and the stuff the cables are made out of (glass) is cheaper than copper. The cables also won't corrode and take up less space than the huge amounts of traditional cables, as well as being easier to maintain and isolate problems. The only down-side is production costs, which is mainly from a lack of supply. Major ISPs investing would solve this very quickly.
Too bad upgrading your infrastructure to the 21st century would mean losing profits today (even if it means more tomorrow). We want our money now. So we'll just up the price instead.
Another interesting fact showing what total crap this is:A 100 MILE fiber-optic cable can transfer 1.75TERABYTES PER SECOND. To put that in perspective, a 2 hour 1080p video is about 7 gigs. That means you could send 250 copies of a high-def movie PER SECOND.Oh... and the stuff the cables are made out of (glass) is cheaper than copper. The cables also won't corrode and take up less space than the huge amounts of traditional cables, as well as being easier to maintain and isolate problems. The only down-side is production costs, which is mainly from a lack of supply. Major ISPs investing would solve this very quickly.Too bad upgrading your infrastructure to the 21st century would mean losing profits today (even if it means more tomorrow). We want our money now. So we'll just up the price instead.
To Verizon's defense, FiOS has cost them BILLIONS upon billions of dollars. It is Verizon who got the ball rolling on FTTH (or FTTP), and they are ahead in service quality, availability, and customer service.
"That makes sense: taxpayers are ultimately flipping the bill for wider roads and new extensions, and broadband surfers may have to apply that same concept to the ever-growing Internet."
Last time I checked my local city did not charge me a monthly fee based on how many times I drove down the road.
This is why we need monopoly enforcement here in America, AND why we need serious action against spam.
Firstly, its clear that all these companies are colluding, in their actions and words they are making it known that they will start charging for something that today they already include in their service, and slowly, they are making it known to all the other companies.
Need more bandwidth? Expand your network. Does that cost money? Yes. Does that mean that part of what we are paying now will have to go somewhere other than your pockets? Yes.
Secondly, how many studies have we seen that state that a majority of internet traffic is just spam email? Stuff that gets put into its own email box and thrown out?
If advertisers were not allowed to use spam, then most of the current problem (which again, in the long run can only be alleviated with network upgrades) would be gone.
I really dislike Verizon... all cell phone companies charge too much for text messages. A 160 character text message is like 50 bytes. As far as other content goes, stop paying your execs ridiculous salaries and fix your network, then we'll talk.
Also, I decided to do a little digging:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=T&annual
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=VZ&annual
It seems AT&T and Verizon are making more than enough money to throw something extra down on research and development. (note: their Income Statements say they spend nothing on R&D: they usually file that under cost of sales).
Also, I decided to do a little digging:http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=T&annualhttp://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=VZ&annualIt seems AT&T and Verizon are making more than enough money to throw something extra down on research and development. (note: their Income Statements say they spend nothing on R&D: they usually file that under cost of sales).
They only made a few billion, they can't afford to spend money in this economy.
This blows.
Go sob in your momma's tits. Grow up and get a life. You goddamn bandwidth hog. You probably don't even pay for your internet. Assumptions, assumptions.. probably dead accurate based on your 2 word response to REALITY.
This is almost insanity. I really don't have ANY information about percentages but I know DAAAAAMN well that if 300 million people are on the INTERNET at the same time, downloading approximitely 20KB's, that's alot of information. Now, multiply that by 200. Why is anyone in shock and udder disbelief that the internet will eventually be throttled? This is retarded. I am done.
By the way, that's 1.2 Billion KILOBYTES a second. I think. lol.
Okay... we'll give you 16mbps download performance... but because YOU use it, we'll either throttle you down to ###mbps (300k?) and/or charge you per megabyte.
Why offer a service you can support?
"Bunch of bs is you ask me. If these management types weren't so greedy to begin with, and put the profits where they belong, into the company and not their pockets, there would be no problem supporting expanding bandwidth. Especially since it keeps getting cheaper.""
Verizon Has a BIG Mouth.it says Lots os Shit About their Internet Connection,That they have the Fastest Bla Bla bla and they say lot of things About Cable.but now we know is all BS!!!
By the way, that's 1.2 Billion KILOBYTES a second. I think. lol.
"thats Nothing"