Issue Seven - Conversations on Technology, Business and Society

Should internet Service Providers
(ISPs) be allowed to prioritize
certain types of data and
deliberately limit the speeds of
high-bandwidth services, such as
peer-to-peer file sharing, to give
performance gains to other users? Supporters
of a concept called net neutrality believe they
shouldn’t. They assert that it is not up to ISPs
to dictate which forms of internet use are
worthier than others.
However, there are plenty of people who
don’t want to pay exorbitant ISP subscriptions
– or see their connection slow to a snail’s pace
– just because of the activities of a few greedy
customers.
The debate isn’t only between different
types of internet user, though. Net neutrality
has commercial and political ramifications, too.
The behavior of ISPs is under close scrutiny
not only from consumers, but from businesses,
regulators and governments.
On I-Network, a Ugandan ICT for
Development forum, the email, “open letter
to MTN” generated more than 89 responses
in a space of over 3weeks. It started when
a frustrated customer decided to express
his frustration in an ‘open letter’ that he
posted via the forum with thousands of
members. The nature of the responses not
only exposed weaknesses in Uganda’s largest
telecommunications company, but also how
much the performance of similar organizations
is always under the microscope.
To understand the argument of the
supporters of net neutrality, think of the road
system in your country. (Mine is Uganda.
Sorry if yours has a different set up). It doesn’t
matter what make, model, size, cost or colour
of the car you drive, the purpose of your
journey or how much you’ve already used
your car that month: the laws of the road
are the same for everyone, and it’s up to the
government to expand the road network
to meet demand rather than discriminating
against certain drivers for using the roads
more. Supporters of net neutrality argue that
the same should apply to the internet.
There are some exceptions on roads,
though. Slower vehicles such as bicycles, farm
vehicles and learner drivers are prohibited
from some streets, partly to avoid accidents
but also to keep traffic moving. Meanwhile,
in some countries, cars with higher CO2
emissions pay more road tax, and those who
drive pay more in fuel tax. The detractors of
net neutrality believe that some management
of how the internet is used is essential to
provide a fair, reliable, and commercially
sustainable service for everyone.
The issue largely stems from how we use
and pay for internet. Most people choose
an ISP based on just two figures: the quoted
download speed and the price. However, it
doesn’t really cost an ISP any more to provide
its customers with a 512kbps or 2Mbps
connection if the hardware is in place. The ISP’s
running costs depend on how much data its
customers upload and download at the busiest
times of day.
THE DOUBLE ISSUE | www.pctechmagazine.com
Let’s imagine that an ISP has 100 customers
in a particular neighbourhood, all on a
10Mbps deal. The ISP would need a 1Gbps
connection from the local exchange to the rest
of the internet to guarantee every customer
10Mbps performance. However, people don’t
download data constantly. They only want fast
performance for a few moments when they
click on a link or file to download.
Let’s say that, during the busiest period,
each of the 1000 users downloads an average
of 50MB of data in an hour. That’s about
Commercial Break:
Content
Provider’s
Server
Content
Provider’s
Server
30web pages and a couple of YouTube videos.
As long as the overall load is spread evenly
across the hour, the entire demand for those
1000 customers works out at just 11.1Mbps.
This means that the 1Gbps connection could
accommodate 9,000 customers, not 100.
It would be daft for an ISP to invest in an
infrastructure that can handle 90 times more
data than is typically required, just in case
everyone decides to download at the same
time. As such, ISP’s hardware is designed
for typical demand rather than guaranteed
performance.
However, customers who use their internet
connection a lot – for video streaming or file
sharing, for example – are far more expensive
for the ISPs to accommodate that other users.
Someone who spends an hour downloading
movies using BitTorrent at 8Mbps will use the
same bandwidth as 72 people doing some
light browsing. ISPs need to make a profit,
and they don’t want some customers costing
them many times more than others. However,
opinion is divided as to what they should do
about it.
How networks interact
Content
Provider’s
Server
What we actually think of as internet is actually a mesh of
interconnected, commercial networks. Each cloud in the diagram
represents one such network, and information from content
providers may come pass through several before coming to your
computer. Campaigners worry that there is nothing to stop one
ISP blocking or degrading the traffic from another in favour of its
own, there by breaking the principle of net neutrality.
Content
Provider’s
Server
Your
Computer
Most ISPs, including our own MTN and
Orange put a cap on the monthly data
allowance for each customer. Data caps
for our local ISPs range from 500MB to
10GB, although in Europe, 10GB can be the
minimum, going to as much as 100GB as the
highest cap.
However, caps are unappealing to
customers and they don’t necessarily stop
congestion at the busiest times. That is why
many ISPs also use traffic management, which
throttles the speed of demanding activities to
maintain performance for others.
SEPTEMEBER - OCTOBER 2010 | PC TECH
COVER STORY 31