Google to detect ISP bandwidth throttling
14th June 2008 by David North
I’ve posted a few times about ISPs kicking up a fuss about the amount of bandwidth new applications are using some even suggesting if the content providers don’t help out with costs they’ll be put into the Internet bus lane!
ISPs breaking net neutrality is a really dangerous course to take, effectively allowing companies to disadvantage their competitors over the web. Where does it stop? Only allowing customer access to one website with exclusive access rights for that sector? It’s as bad as standing outside a competitor’s shop and refusing to let customers go in.
Customers pay for bandwidth and expect to have free and unrestricted access to whatever they want on the web - bandwidth throttling goes against this and I think most customers if they were aware of this practices would complain to their ISP or even jump ship.
Now there is a report that Google is working on tools to detect if ISPs are bandwidth throttling - in my opinion this can only be good. If people are aware of the situation they can take action. In the long term this could mean ISPs would have to abandon this approach altogether for fear of losing customers.
