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Is Streaming Video the Real Throttling Target?

Posted by Soulskill on from the don't-give-them-too-much-credit dept.

snydeq writes "Responding to legal pressure over its throttling of P2P traffic and other dubious practices, Comcast says it will now punish the most abusive users rather than particular applications. Yet its pilot tests in Pennsylvania and Virgina, which would 'delay traffic for the heaviest users of Internet data without targeting specific software applications,' raise greater concerns over net neutrality, ones that belie a potential preemptive strike against the cable company's chief future competition: streaming video. 'Despite the industry's constant invocation of the P2P bogeyman, at present, the largest bandwidth hog is actually streaming video,' writes Mehan Jayasuriya at Public Knowledge. 'Clearly, the emergence of online video is something that cable video providers find very threatening and by capping off bandwidth usage, they're effectively killing two birds with one stone; discouraging users from using their Internet connections for video while increasing the efficiency of the network. Is this anti-competitive? It sure seems like it.'"

3 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Nonsensical reasoning by J'ai+Friedpork · · Score: 3, Funny

    You don't start a business to benefit the consumer, that's what a charity is for. You start a business to benefit you. And maybe kittens. But mostly you.

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    Took this comment seriously, did you?
  2. Re:Nonsensical reasoning by clang_jangle · · Score: 3, Funny
    Ebeneezer, is that you?

    You don't start a business to benefit the consumer, that's what a charity is for. You start a business to benefit you.


    Whatever happened to "build a better mousetrap"? It's thinking like yours that has ruined American business.
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    Caveat Utilitor
  3. Re: streaming for play content?DAMMIT! GET A DISH! by aqk · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have (choke) Dial-up.
    Alas I live in the deep woods, with a 35-year-old underground telecom wire. And can barely pull 35 Kbs if I'm lucky.
    If I need an SPx upgrade or whatever, I go to a friend's in the town nearby and DL it onto my thumb-drive.
    I do not understand these people who use THE INTERNET to download live action! It slows down even MY pathetic bandwidth!
    Fer goodness sakes guys, get a satellite dish. And if it's some illegal movie? Hell- go rent the damn video at your local store! It's faster. And cheaper.
    And - it's ILLEGAL? So go get an FTA sat receiver. They are easy enuf to find!
    You idiots are destroying the internet! I use the internet for internet-specific tasks (wotever that means; I'm still in WEB-1)
    A pox upon your movie torrents!


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    - aqk
    F U /. illiterates.