More proof throttling is bad
Not that we needed any more proof that throttling is bad, the case against it is well documented, but a story appeared yesterday on the BBC web site which proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt that throttling has got to stop.
Net TV technology seeks testers “Testers are being sought for technology that may help TV migrate to the net. The P2P Next project has created a trial, or beta, version of software that can stream video across a file-sharing network.”
In short, the developers of software (called SwarmPlayer) have received 19m euros to develop software based on Peer to Peer (P2P) technology currently employed in software such as bittorrent, to deliver a Television over the Internet solution that is not only capable of delivering recorded content, but live television as well.
But one thing is certain, it could never happen in Canada.
All of Canada’s major ISPs throttle this kind of traffic making utilization of this technology impossible. And is it just a conicidence that this type of technology would compete directly with their other major business, TV distrobution? Of course not.
All of the ISP’s recognize that as long as they throttle the internet it can never develop to it’s full potential which assures internet based services can never compete against their other business areas.
Furthermore, as Google pointed out in their submission to the CRTC on this issue, investing in internet based technologies in Canada is currently way to risky. Would you invest in a technology that relies on the internet when you never know from day-to-day if the ISPs might decide to block it and wipe out your business?
Yes the Government (via the CRTC) needs to but a stop to the throttling. This will help a little in the short term but unfortunately it will not solve the problem because the ISPs will simply find other ways to keep our service slow.
Canada desperately needs foreign ownership restrictions to be lifted so that alternative Internet providers will be encouraged to invest here and give us some choice.
