Major internet providers slowing traffic speeds for thousands across US
Study finds significant degradations of networks for five largest
ISPs, including AT&T
and Time Warner, representing 75% of all
wireline households in US
Sam Thielman in New York
Monday 22 June 2015 10.58 EDT
Major internet providers, including AT&T, Time Warner
and Verizon, are slowing data from popular websites to thousands of US
businesses and residential customers in dozens of cities across the
country, according to a study released on Monday.
The study, conducted by internet activists BattlefortheNet, looked at
the results from 300,000 internet users and found significant
degradations on the networks of the five largest internet service
providers (ISPs), representing 75% of all wireline households across the
US.
The findings come weeks after the Federal Communications Commission
introduced new rules meant to protect “net neutrality” – the principle
that all data is equal online – and keep ISPs from holding traffic speeds for ransom.
Tim Karr of Free Press, one of the groups that makes up
BattlefortheNet, said the finding show ISPs are not providing content to
users at the speeds they’re paying for.
“For too long, internet access providers and their lobbyists have
characterized net neutrality protections as a solution in search of a
problem,” said Karr. “Data compiled using the Internet
Health Test show us otherwise – that there is widespread and systemic
abuse across the network. The irony is that this trove of evidence is
becoming public just as many in Congress are trying to strip away the
open internet protections that would prevent such bad behavior.”
The study, supported by the technologists at Open Technology Institute’s M-Lab,
examines the comparative speeds of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs),
which shoulder some of the data load for popular websites. Any site that
becomes popular enough has to pay a CDN to carry its content on a
network of servers around the country (or the world) so that the
material is close to the people who want to access it.
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In
Atlanta, for example, Comcast provided hourly median download speeds
over a CDN called GTT of 21.4 megabits per second at 7pm throughout the
month of May. AT&T provided speeds over the same network of ⅕ of a
megabit per second. When a network sends more than twice the traffic it
receives, that network is required by AT&T to pay for the privilege.
When quizzed about slow speeds on GTT, AT&T told Ars Technica
earlier this year that it wouldn’t upgrade capacity to a CDN that saw
that much outgoing traffic until it saw some money from that network (as
distinct from the money it sees from consumers).
AT&T has strongly opposed regulation of its agreements with the
companies that directly provide connectivity between high-traffic
internet users and their customers. Cogent, Level3 and others have
petitioned the FCC to make free interconnection to CDNs a part of the
conditions for the proposed merger between AT&T and DirecTV.
“It would be unprecedented and unjustified to force AT&T to
provide free backbone services to other backbone carriers and edge
providers, as Cogent et al seek,” said the company in a filing replying
to the CDNs’ suggestion, part of a brief opposing the merger. “Nor is
there any basis for requiring AT&T to augment network capacity for
free and without any limits. Opponents’ proposals would shift the costs
of their services onto all AT&T subscribers, many of whom do not use
Opponents’ services, and would harm consumers.”
FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has taken an aggressive regulatory tack when
it comes to mergers in the telecommunications sector. “History proves
that absent competition a predominant position in the market such as
yours creates economic incentives to use that market power to protect
your traditional business in a way that is ultimately harmful to
consumers,” he told industry leaders at the Internet and Television Expo
last month.
The dispute over traffic speeds comes as the telecoms and cable
industry readies legal challenges to the net neutrality rules. Most
telecoms are content letting their lobbyists, notably trade associations
Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) and USTelecom, sue the FCC over net neutrality rules, but AT&T has been one of the few companies to sue the FCC directly.
LOOKS LIKE THEY ARE WAGING WAR....
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ISPs must be allowed to manage internet traffic
Sandro Gozi