NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Bandwidth caps, security risks, and more
ABC News is running a good article on the bandwidth cap controversy: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/SmartHome/Story?id=5689480 It's worth noting that the lower bandwidth caps apparently being planned by TW and others will have drastic implications not only for entertainment services like video, but could also carry major security implications. If users, concerned -- rightly or not -- about exceeding their caps, begin to cut back on their participation in application updating systems (keep in mind that many of these run pretty much invisibly in the background right now) the implications could be very serious. We have been provided with no evidence that the particular cap levels being deployed have any clear relationship with solving actual congestion problems or dealing with network peering cost issues. The lower TW caps will decimate use of outside video services and cloud services, and in some cases perhaps even simple audio services -- from day one. TW's own content offerings, not under the cap, will be the obvious subscriber choice. In the absence of supporting evidence, it seems reasonable to assume that the driving force behind these caps is basic "because we can" greed, especially if this spreads to DSL carriers like AT&T who have long publicly stated that they saw no need for caps -- at least it seems until U-verse video services rolled out and AT&T had its own video content to promote. And of course, with the extremely limited practical choices that most people have for Internet access services, many consumers will find themselves up the creek without a paddle or recourse. Innovative Internet services that might have been will never see the light of day -- exactly the wrong way to go when alarms are sounding about the decreasing pace of U.S. innovation generally. We are treating the Internet not as the crucial infrastructure that it has become, but rather as a bright bauble to be dangled in front of consumers and then snatched away just when we've come to depend on it in our daily lives. --Lauren-- NNSquad Moderator