With more and more content going on various on demand online services and the higher bandwidth requirements for these, ISPs are being forced to take actions to try and control their costs.
It is known that BT controls traffic for the BBC’s iPlayer on certain of their internet packages. Net Neutrality is the principle that the ISPs and network managers should not effect how certain providers or system should run. However, with the high bandwidth requirements for streaming media, some ISPs have gone against this and are controlling traffic to reduce the effect it has on their network. For the end user, this may appear as a lot of buffering during the streaming of video content, or slower than normal downloads from certain content providers.
With the recent announcement by Channel 4 to start offering more HD content via their on demand system, 4oD, there is a worry the problem with only get worse.
How would you feel if you knew your provider was trying to control how you use the internet to releave load across their network even though its harming what you are trying to do. Should they be forced to upgrade their networks to cope with the needed demand?
Personally, I believe they should invest in the networks so that the UK is leading the way, not playing constant catch up.