Virgin Mobile Cap Removed due to Connectivity Problems

Traffic shaping is not as easy as it seems ..

Few days after reporting that Virgin Mobile caps mobile speed at 2Mbps (here), Bill Ray updates to The Register that "Virgin Mobile UK has suspended its internet speed cap while it tries to get its network reliability back up to scratch. Large numbers of the operator's customers suffered intermittent connectivity over the last week or so, quite possibly related to the company's attempt to impose a 2Mbit-per-second cap on mobile internet download speeds .. Virgin Mobile said it has identified the cause of the connection problems - located deep within EE's phone network upon which Virgin Mobile piggybacks its operations - and is working to get a fix in place".

Virgin support page further explains that as "We’re still working hard to resolve the network issues customers have been seeing, where customers are getting intermittent or no internet access, and problems with apps not working. Our network partner EE have removed certain network controls to see whether this can help to pinpoint the issue. This has included temporarily removing the speed cap".

See "Virgin Mobile doffs its cap: Web speed limit axed after outrage" - here.

Virgin Mobile [UK] Shapes Mobile Data Speed

 

Sounds like the old days of broadband traffic shaping are back - this time to mobile.

Bill Ray reports to The Register that "Virgin Mobile UK has admitted it is capping mobile data at 2Mb/sec - claiming it is for the benefit of customers - as it tries to keep everyone connected. Customers started noticing the speed cap in the last few days, but as it's being applied piecemeal it has been hard to pin down. That is, until the company last night admitted to capping both contract and pre-paid customers in a statement which claimed that capping speed at 2Mb/sec was a good thing".

"'We are currently trialling measures to help manage data across the mobile network,' said the telco,' justifying the cap as a measure to ensure all our customers can continue to enjoy the benefits of mobile data on the move'"

At the end of 2012, Virgin had 1.7M mobile subscribers; it "relies on Everything Everywhere’s (EE) networks to carry its communications traffic" (MVNO).
  
See "Virgin Mobile coughs to choking its customers" - here.

BT Broadband to Stop Traffic Management and Data Caps

BT announced that it has "..raised the stakes in the battle for broadband customers by introducing Totally Unlimited Broadband on all but its entry level offerings – and cutting the price. The UK’s most popular broadband now comes without any usage limits and free from traffic management from just £16 a month for 16Mbps copper broadband, £23 for 38Mbps Infinity or £26 for 76Mbps Infinity".

John Petter (pictured), managing director of BT’s Consumer division, said: “.. Customers told us that they wanted to be able to enjoy catch-up TV, streamed films and other bandwidth-eating applications without having to worry about going over their limit or being slowed down by their ISP .. but we wanted to make that really affordable too, without the sort of traffic management Virgin Media, TalkTalk or EE customers may find themselves subject to. Unlike Sky, we’re extremely confident that our network can stand up to the extra bandwidth demands from totally unlimited products everywhere across the UK"

See "BT launches better value totally unlimited broadband" - here.

UK: Broadband ISPs (except Sky) Still Limit P2P; Some Prioritize VoIP!

 
Thomas Newton (pictured) reports to recombu on the "Fair Use Policies - FUP’s - of the UK’s main ISPs and seen how they stack up against each other" as "Knowing what the traffic management policy of an ISP entails is as important as doing your homework on things like the monthly usage cap, the cost of line rental, customer service and bundled services like digital TV or phone plans".

The article covers BT Broadband, Virgin Media, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and Everything Everywhere Broadband (see also "UK: ISPs Publish New Voluntary Code on Broadband Traffic Management" - here). 
 
"Sky Broadband is perhaps unique among the UK’s major ISPs in that it doesn't apply any kind of traffic management at all" - but everybody else still limit P2P file sharing (here) - although P2P's share of total traffic is lower now as streaming traffic increases; Netflix alone has now 1M subscribers in the UK - (here). 

 

TalkTlak and EE Broadband prioritize some traffic - such as VoIP (both), gaming (EE) and even Web browsing (TalkTalk).
See "Traffic Management, FUP’s and Throttling: EE throttles P2P, speeds up gaming" - here.

UK MNOs: We did Well During the Olympic Games; US Streamers Like Athletics

 
Chris Donkin reports to mobile news that "Network operators claim to have coped well after experiencing rises of up to 80 per cent in voice and data services at Olympic venues during the first week of the London 2012 Games. Everything Everywhere, Three, O2, and Vodafone all reported a good service during the events as a result of multimillion-pound upgrade investments to cope with demand".
 
"Everything Everywhere said it had experienced a 70 to 80 per cent rise at venues and tourist hotspots, as well as a 10 per cent increase across the rest of the UK as customers accessed 3G services .. Vodafone also reported a sharp increase in data use across the UK, with a 20 per cent rise in the number of its customers accessing Facebook during the opening ceremony and 300,000 following events live on Twitter"

See "Games prompt 80 per cent surge in mobile voice and data usage" - here.
 

Sandvine published "graphic we prepared that attempts to sum up the impact Olympic streaming had in the US. In it you can see the variance in Olympic streaming traffic throughout the games, and the accompanying event that drove traffic to its peak each day".

See "Olympic Update: What Events Owned the Podium?" - here.

Large UK ISPs will Fight Copyright Infringements

Being fashionably late (for a party that is almost over now - see "French Copyright Law - 165 Cases Reached Court; File Sharing Declines" - here), the UK regulator, Ofcom published a "draft code for consultation that would require large internet service providers (ISPs) to inform customers of allegations that their internet connection has been used to infringe copyright".

See also "UK Culture Minister Vaizey:"ISPs have their role to play to help consumers find legitimate content" - here and

"The code will initially cover ISPs with more than 400,000 broadband-enabled fixed lines – currently BT, Everything Everywhere, O2, Sky, TalkTalk Group and Virgin Media. Together these providers account for more than 93% of the retail broadband market in the UK. The draft code requires ISPs to send letters to customers, at least a month apart, informing them when their account is connected to reports of suspected online copyright infringement.

If a customer receives three letters or more within a 12-month period, anonymous information may be provided on request to copyright owners showing them which infringement reports are linked to that customer’s account. The copyright owner may then seek a court order requiring the ISP to reveal the identity of the customer, with a view to taking legal action for infringement under the Copyright Designs and Patent Act 1988".

What seems to be a long process will start now and "Ofcom currently expects the first customer notification letters to be sent in early 2014"

See "New measures to protect online copyright and inform consumers" - here.

UK ISPs Ordered to Block Pirate Bay

The BBC reports that "File-sharing site The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK internet service providers, the High Court has ruled. The Swedish website hosts links to download mostly pirated free music and video. Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media must all prevent their users from accessing the site".

Few months ago a similar order was issued in the matter of Newzbin2 (see "UK Court Orders BT to Block Newzbin2 in 14 Days, Using DPI" - here).

Like always, I should mention that the UK regulator, Ofcom, believes that "All site blocking techniques can be circumvented" (here).

See "The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK ISPs, court rules" - here.

Everything Everywhere (UK): Operators Need to Optimize Traffic Delivery

     

Benny Har-Even (pictured) reports to telecoms.com on Sylvan Thevanot's, marketing director for UK network provider Everything Everywhere (the joint T-Mobile and Orange UK operations), presentation during the Broadband Traffic Management Congress earlier this week in London.

Mr. Thevanot called "on all fixed line and mobile operators to get their networks in order in time for the London Olympics due to be held in the UK capital during July and August 2012" and said that "current average usage on its fixed line service was currently around 17GB per user per month and that there was a need for operators to optimise the delivery of traffic on the network due to the increasing costs of delivering services".

"We hope that they will get their act together for the Olympics, as there will be lots of iPlayer and catch up services being used" .

In related news, a recent research by uSwitch.com, in the UK, reveals that ".. during the peak period between 7 and 9pm average download speeds are 6.2Mbps. That’s some 35 per cent slower than the fastest average connection speed of 9.6Mbps available between the hours of 2 and 3am when demand is at its lowest .. The problem of slower broadband speeds has been exacerbated by changes in the way people use the internet, with far more people downloading music and watching TV programmes online, inevitably putting more strain on the network.". See "Broadband speeds fall 35% at peak times, survey reveals"- here.

See also:

• A Year Before the Olympics - London is Running Out of Mobile Capacity - here
• Everything Everywhere (UK) Likes Application-based Tiered Services - here 

See "Networks need to prepare for Olympics data boom, says Everything Everywhere" - here.

Everything Everywhere (UK) Likes Application-based Tiered Services

 

Which?Mobile reports that "During a meeting earlier today between Everything Everywhere representatives and Which? Mobile, the telco mooted the idea of a broadband market where your internet package dictates what types of content you can access. This, it felt, had the potential to allow more flexible tariff pricing."

Everything Everywhere is the parent company of the merged operation of T-Mobile and Orange in the UK. It has now 28M subscribers and 16,000 employees.

See "Would you pay your operator extra to access YouTube?"- here.
 

" if you’re not interested in watching online video such as the BBC iPlayer, then you could move to a cheaper tariff .. Those who want free access to all content types could pay more for a deal with no restrictions .. Everything Everywhere was careful to stress that it’s not currently considering adopting these kinds of tariffs. But it said it does not want industry regulators to restrict such a strategy in the interest of net neutrality"

Which?’s Net Neutrality policy expert Rob Reid  said "Allowing ISPs to develop tariffs with restricted access to the web could open the door to discrimination and harm innovation"