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Sprint Is Throttling Microsoft's Skype Service, Study Finds (fortune.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fortune: Sprint has been slowing traffic to Microsoft's internet-based video chat service Skype, according to new findings from an ongoing study by Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts. Among leading U.S. carriers, Sprint was the only one to throttle Skype, the study found. The throttling was detected in 34 percent of 1,968 full tests -- defined as those in which a user ran two tests in a row -- conducted between Jan. 18 and Oct. 15. It happened regularly, and was spread geographically across the U.S. Android phone users were more affected than owners of Apple Inc.'s iPhones. The finding is particularly troubling because Skype relies on Sprint's wireless internet network, but the app also provides a communication tool that competes with Sprint's calling services, the researcher added. "If you are a telephony provider and you provide IP services over that network, then you shouldn't be able to limit the service offered by another telephony provider that runs over the internet," David Choffnes, one of the researchers who developed the app used to conduct the survey, said. "From a pure common sense competition view, it seems directly anti-competitive."
This is perfectly legal now. Thanks Pai.
Wow, it's almost like there should be some sort of regulation to prevent a carrier from discriminating against traffic or services. You know, to enforce then neutrality of networks or something like that. Maybe we should all contact the FCC to suggest this:)
I thought the 2004 internet rules worked just fine, who could have ever imagined that a company would do this????
When your service is just plain dogshit. Pretty sure Sprint still ranks dead last in "4g" speeds.
Seems anti competitive? Shocking!
Wanted no net neutrality, got no net neutrality.
An alternative fix would be to ensure several competing ISPs everywhere.
You only have yourselves to blame! You all voted for the same old shit just the other day! What did you expect??
I hope they get sued back into the stone age
66% of Skype calls were not throttled.
Why were only some calls throttled? Enquiring minds want to know!!!
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Keep up the good work. If sticking it to Microsoft isn't God's work in it's purest form, then I don't know what else could be.
The finding is particularly troubling because Skype relies on Sprint's wireless internet network, but the app also provides a communication tool that competes with Sprint's calling services, the researcher added.
Do cellular companies still make money off of phone calls? It seems hard to find a non-unlimited calling plan these days, and I doubt I make even 30 minutes of calls a month
This is what they wanted, this is what they lobbied for.
Now watch the juggernauts of tech and data fight it out, losing billions along the way, until they come to the simple realization that it's in everyone's best profit to allow the internet flow free and un-restricted.
Sure, there may be some dark periods on the horizon in the short term, but after the storm passes NOBODY will try to fuck with the network again.
I don't work for Sprint (or any ISP/network provider) but it really seems like a lot of these tests are specifically designed to find anything that looks like "throttling a 'competitor'" and as a result the vast majority of them are likely false positives or due to other factors. Remember how ISPs were "unfairly throttling Netflix?" Yeah, it was largely made up/staged, _by Netflix itself_ in order to prove that "oh noes!, we we urgently need strict net neutrality this instant!" (so Netflix could hog a huge block of bandwidth without any need to, you know, actually pay for hogging it), but hardly anyone bothered reporting on that part because it's not a juicy conspiracy by an evil ISP to destroy our network freedom and harm its competition, and that's the only narrative we're allowed to push.
Look, I can see some positives to net neutrality, but at the same time, I get really sick of people trying to ram it down my throat (and give ISPs an excuse to raise my rates yet again) because of alleged abuses, many of which have turned out to be completely unfounded.
And before someone says "citation needed:" here's one of the few that bothered to actually report on it.
Well ... Skype itself seems to do some self-throttling.
Most my Video Skype calls, no matter the network, are like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
"If Trump is literally me, who am I?" - Adolf Hitler
My ISP's upstream provider (Rogers) is blocking my SFTP so I know they are doing deep packet inspection. Is SFTP the only traffic they are messing with? I would like to know.
*It is quite possible that SFTP is an exception. To a deep packet inspection appliance a new encrypted TCP stream is created on a port the appliance knows nothing about. Almost every other TCP stream can be classified by the server port or by the initial handshake.
The researchers bought a Sprint wireless plan to try to detect throttling of Skype in the lab, but couldn’t replicate the experience of the Wehe app users. This is likely because it affects only certain subscription plans, but not the one the researchers purchased, they said.
I think this bears more investigation before simply saying that Sprint is throttling Skype. Asking what was the difference between the subscription plans would have been a good start before jumping to a conspiratorial conclusion like this article did.
Net neutrality is necessary for humanities future. This is an issue worth burning my excellent Karma.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
The only people opposing net neutrality (apart from the elites who will profit) are duped working class trash, who fell for the two party system meme.
Net neutrality is purely a technical issue, and the tech illiterate should not have an opinion on it.
Plausible denial - Pleads incompetence. Not the best defense but ... guessing many would not disagree;)
That the AI that monitors the content of the conversations knows the Skype calls are essentially content-free and signals the network they are ripe for throttling without disrupting actual customers.
According to Skype spec's it only needs a 1.2 mbps for HD video and 128Kbps for SD. I knew Sprint had a crappy network but this basically admits Sprint is junk for bandwidth if they have to throttle Skype.
Don't worry, Microsoft. The Free Market will sort this out, right? If you are unhappy with that provider, just have all you users switch to the competition.
Microsoft has NEVER wanted to play fair. Surely they are not now crying about Sprint not playing fair?
Nope. Microsoft is not crying about this. They don't even care. They know that an uneven playing field makes it harder for newcomers so they are happy even though this is hurting them. It is better for Skype to never make a profit or even just die than to let the playing field be fair.
Note that it is not Microsoft that noticed or said anything about the throttling.
"Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen