Gigaom Bandwidth Caps Watch (8 out of 15 ISPs on the Black List)

Stacey Higginbotham ("Over 60% of US Broadband Subscribers have Data Caps" - here)  [pictured] explains that "We’re not fans of ISPs capping broadband here at Gigaom, so we’re keeping a close eye on how those caps evolve and who they affect. Check out our updated list on who’s capping your broadband .. In most cases, the companies implementing caps maintain that 99 or 98 percent of their users don’t go over them and have median usages that range between 12 and 18 GB per month. So here are the top broadband providers in the U.S. and their caps. Last year we included a column for exceptions to the cap, but this year there aren’t any, so we took that column out". 

ISPs with no caps: TWC, Verizon, Cablevision, Frontier, Windstream, Fairpoint and Cincinnati Bell. 4 ISPs have overage costs - Comcast (see "Comcast Response to Recent Claims: Higher Base Cap w/Tiered Plans or Overage Fees" - here), AT&T, Suddenlink and MediaCom.

See the full table - "Want to know if your ISP is capping data? Check our updated chart" - here.

Netflix CDN Customers have More Fun

   

Showing Prime Time data. Source: Netflix

Netflix (31.6% of US fixed traffic - here) has improved its "ISP Performance" reports [see "Netflix - New Site Shows ISP Performance for US, UK, Scandinavia and more" - here], by isolating the prime time statistics - "so you know which Internet service providers (ISPs) deliver the best Netflix experience when it matters most".

Joris Evers, director of corporate communications at Netflix, shows in a blog post the effect of the Netflix' CDN on ISP performance, during prime time:

"Prime time is the equivalent of rush hour on the Internet. This can lead to congestion on the network, just like physical traffic can on roads. When watching Netflix, network congestion can manifest itself as buffering, lower video quality or longer start-up times. 

This graphic shows how important the effect of network congestion during prime time can be on the viewing experience. ISP speeds are consistently much better for customers served by ISPs that directly connect their network to Netflix using our Open Connect content delivery network. [see "Majority of Netflix Traffic Uses its Free CDN" - here and "Netflix CDN Appliance Design: 100TB;10Gbps -- in 4U Chassis" - here]. This performance difference is even more evident during prime time".

Apparently, Cablevision is using the CDN and TWC doesn’t, and indeed its prime time service shows significant worse performance, while Cablevision maintains a more constant service. Nevertheless, TWC is still better than other ISPs, according to the above chart.

See "New: Netflix Prime Time ISP Performance Metrics'" - here.

US "6 Strikes" Anti-Piracy Enforcement Begins!

Pay, Don't share !

After some delays (originally planed for July 2012 - see "US Anti-Piracy Delayed; ISPs will not Terminate Accounts" - here) Jill Lesser, Executive Director, Center for Copyright Information announced that Feb 25 marked ".. the beginning of the implementation phase of the Copyright Alert System (CAS). Implementation marks the culmination of many months of work on this groundbreaking and collaborative effort to curb online piracy and promote the lawful use of digital music, movies and TV shows".

The CAS marks a new way to reach consumers who may be engaging in peer-to-peer (P2P) piracy and I am excited that our new website features information on the CAS, the Independent Review Process, copyright, P2P networks, and numerous consumer oriented legal sources for music, movies and television shows". 

According to the press Comcast is the first ISP implementing the system followed by AT&T, Cablevision, Time Warner, and Verizon later (here - see the 2011 MOU below).

See "Copyright Alert System Set to Begin" - here.

 

FCC: Cablevision has "improved remarkably in a flight to quality"

The FCC released the " ..results of its ongoing, nationwide performance study of residential wireline broadband service in its second “Measuring Broadband America” report .. broadband providers’ promises of performance are more accurate. In the time period measured for the August 2011 Report, the average broadband provider delivered 87 percent of advertised download speed during times when bandwidth demand was at its peak. During the time period measured for the July 2012 Report, that number rose to 96 percent. FCC analysis indicates that the improvements of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in meeting their advertised speeds were largely driven by improvements in network performance, and not downward adjustments to the speed tiers offered". 

The charts below show "Average Peak Period and 24-Hour Sustained Download Speeds as a Percentage of Advertised" to this year's report and last year (see "FCC: "Most ISPs delivered actual download speeds within 20% of advertised speeds" - here).

Looks like Cablevision took last year's report seriously! Leaping from the last place with ~50% of   Advertised to the first one this year with ~120%.

See "FCC releases second “measuring broadband America” report; nationwide test of wireline broadband service reveals improved broadband performance" - here.

US ISPs to Start Anti-Piracy Actions on July 12

Last July the Center for Copyright Information published a "fact sheet" explaining the system that will be used by ISPs so "Parents and other ISP subscribers will benefit from a new state of the art system of alerts -- similar to fraud alerts consumers receive about their credit card accounts -- that let them know when their Internet accounts have been identified as being misused for content theft" (here).

Greg Sandoval reports to CNET that Cary Sherman, (pictured) CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), said on Wednesday during a panel discussion at AAP Annual Meeting that "Most of the participating ISPs (Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable and other bandwidth providers) are on track to begin implementing the program by July 12"


".. Each ISP has to develop their infrastructure for automating the system for establishing the database so they can keep track of repeat infringers, so they know that this is the first notice or the third notice. Every ISP has to do it differently depending on the architecture of its particular network. Some are nearing completion and others are a little further from completion".

  

See "RIAA chief: ISPs to start policing copyright by July 12' - here.

Regulation Improves Performance - the FCC/Cablevision Example

   
Last August the FCC published a report on US ISP's "actual vs. advertised" performance (see "FCC: "Most ISPs delivered actual download speeds within 20% of advertised speeds" - here). A major exception to the generally good results (80+%) was the performance of Cablevision (see chart below).

 

It seems that public monitoring helps. In a post to the FCC blog, Joel Gurin (pictured), Chief, Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau, reports that "As we had hoped, our [August] results quickly began informing the marketplace. Our findings were reported not only on the news and on the websites of consumer groups, but also in television commercials, radio ads, and press releases from Internet service providers themselves .. We are pleased to note that the performance of one company—Cablevision—markedly improved from earlier this year. .. During October 2011, the most recent month for which data is available, subscribers to Cablevision’s 15 Mbps service were receiving average download speeds during peaks hours at over 90% of the advertised speed" 



Source: FCC,
Measuring Broadband America,
August 2011



See "Broadband Speed: FCC Data Is Improving the Market" - here.



In the meantime, Cablevision filled a lawsuit against Verizon - "for allegedly making false claims in advertisements for its FiOS high-speed Internet service .. Verizon's ads [see below] misleadingly presented Federal Communications Commission data to suggest Cablevision service runs exceptionally slow. The FCC figures actually show Cablevision Internet running near or above advertised speeds even during peak usage hours"  (see WSJ article "Cablevision Sues Verizon Over High-Speed Internet Ads" - here).