OMG OMG : Caps on Unlimited Broadband Plans

[john117]

[john117]

here are some parts of responses of various isps to TRAI's call for consultation paper on "Bandwidth required for ISPs for
better connectivity and improved quality of service"
from airtel's response

Q 3.3
Any other suggestion to improve quality of internet / Broadband access to end users?
Bharti’s Response:
1. The regulator should enable the following:
a. Local Loop unbundling for enhancing the broadband access penetration
b. Easy access to ROW for accelerating the access network growth
2. Internet across the world is a best effort based services as the whole network is managed
by various Carriers / ISPs / ASPs and datacenters. The network itself is highly unpredictable
and is influenced by various events, usages, existing performance levels and failures across
the world. However analyzing it closely Internet means connecting the user to the content
and vice versa. The quality of services depends on transferring IP packets with predictable
network availability and quality parameters. To make the network more predictable and to
bring sanity, it is as mandatory to bring the content closer to the user as much as possible.
3. A joint effort by the regulator and various/content providers is required for localizing the
content within the country. The same can be facilitated by moving to higher level of
Internet exchange on domestic level and datacenters in the country. The traffic between
the service providers within the country should get switched with in the country and should
not loop back through international route and other transit provider. More and more
datacenters should be built up in the country which should facilitate the co-location of
most popular content with in the country and even to regional levels.
4. Also the service providers should be free to implement fair usage policy and restrict the
few bandwidth huggers’ from the pack who deteriorate the experience of the majority
normal users.

****ing ***.. customers who try to make full use of a service which they hav paid for are now being called bandwidth huggers .. cheap tactics by airtel to accomodate more customer without expanding the infrastructure..


here is mtnl's response

Any other suggestion to improve quality of Internet/ Broadband access to end
users?
Reply: The criteria of peak time bandwidth usage will be perhaps better than contention
ratio. Peak time bandwidth usage can be restricted to say 90 % and it should be
ensured that more bandwidth is provisioned as soon as peak bandwidth usage
exceeds a predetermined value.
The cost of International Bandwidth should be reduced so as to make it affordable
for the ISPs to provide more internet bandwidth to the end user keeping the tariff
same.

bit more sensible... no mention of caps


here is the reliance's response ..

i) The contention ratio is not a good QoS indicator in the ‘capped environment’.
(ii) It is not easy to estimate contention ratio for mobile internet access
(iii) The service providers monitor real time contention ratio and optimize resources to provide the promised speed to the subscribers.
(iv) The regulatory intervention should be limited to prescribe the standards and not specify how to achieve those standards.
(v) The contention ratio may result in inefficient utilization of resources and increase the cost of delivery of service. ( reply to issue 3.2)
(vi) For consumers the end result is relevant i.e. speed of the internet and not the contention ratio. The content ratio is not comparable between different technologies and different service providers as that would depend on the user profile and usage pattern.
VI Recommendation
1. The TRAI should not specify the contention ratio as QoS parameter.
2. Since wireless access, especially the mobile access is expected to fuel the growth of broadband services, and the contention ratio can not be easily measured for such services, the use of Contention Ratio as Quality of Service parameter is not suggested.

again no mention of caps .. if u read the whole document .. reliance has commented at some places that capped connections are not good for customer.. also its the most polished and focused one..

sify

d. Fair Use Policy: Another area which the Regulator would need to work is in
the Fair Usage Policy. Our internal study indicates that the Top 20% of the
users consume 80% of the bandwidth (OFCOM indicates top 10% of the
customers consume more than twice the bandwidth consumed by the rest 90%
of the customers). It would be prudent for the service providers to have a fair
use policy, especially in the unlimited category where the customer can be
restricted on the download speed once a threshold is reached. This will enable
all the Broadband Users to have an equitable access to the broadband capacity
and improve quality of experience in general to all the users.
Fair Use Policies followed by some of the leading ISPs in the world in
association with their respective regulatory authorities are mentioned below:
i. Orange, UK
fair use policy | orange
ii. AOL, UK
Broadband Answers from AOL Broadband | AOL Broadband frequently asked questions
iii. AT&T, USA
Marketing Trials - AT&T and
AT&T Trials Tiered Broadband in Nevada

fair usage my ass .. **** u sify **** u...


tata

3.3 Any other suggestion to improve quality of Internet/ Broadband access to end
users?
Transparent customer communication, coupled with customer education.! awareness
should be promoted; this can address improvement of OoS of Internet I Broadband
services.
Mechanism to guarantee and monitor key Quality of Service parameters like throughput,
latency, etc are already in place through the Quality of Service for Broadband
Regulation.
ISPs and UAS Licensees are regularly reporting QOS parameters quarterly enabling
effective monitoring of QOS by the Authority. We strongly believe, the existing framework
if working well and there is no pressing need to incorporate any additional parameters.
Perception of QOS is very subjective. Focus at present should be to catalyze uptake of
Internet through affordable tariffs and relevant content.

Phew .. no mention of data cap..

so this is what happend, trai called for isp's view .. other isp's responded but airtel jumped the gun and implemented it too..


posted at broadband forums..

Originally Posted by kalpik
what the fruit! You want to give everyone equal access, let there be just ONE plan! That's what's equal. Im paying more money than the other guy NOT to get equal access! What a load of ****! Its just a poor excuse these lamers have for not having the proper infrasctucture in place to support their userbase. Imagine if tomorrow gmail says "you've received more than 100 mails in this month, so we're gonna have to make you wait 30 mins each time you wanna access any of your mail obviously, to give a "fair" chance to other users. Utter bull ****.

pure gold ...

[rpm19050]

512 and 1 mbps back on kar circle. no fair usage deep ****. just "limited to one computer only". yea, ill crack that all right

[JD666]

man... conspirators united... i think the idea is not to curb piracy.. but for trai to add some charge or the other on the isp, and that will get passed on through us. like posted before, if you want to d/l , and wanna collect stuff, you will do it, irrespective of whether you d/l it or get it at your local market.

[rpm19050]

Railwire - Tariffs & Plans


^^ comments about this ..anyone?

anyone knows whether they' are as good with service as with the pricing? one 8mbps connection please!!

[Fenix]

Well....if this happens...would be the worst day in Indian Broadband history . BYE BYE HD MOVIES and even more bad news is that i have 1MB for AIRTEL . I Haven`t shut my system since 15th Sept and DL More than a 1 TB...With limited amount of DL everything would be shut down .

[Superfrag]

omg.. 15th sept.. thats an insane amount of time..

[SignOps]

I called Airtel and had a discussion with them.
The Airtel Fair Usage Policy is true and is in line with whats being discussed in this Forum.



This is the discussion we had(I'm in the Chennai Circle):
Summary:
Reason - becos Commercial customers are not getting good speeds.
512K 25GB limit reduced to 256K after limit reached,
384k 25GB limit reduced to 256K after limit reached(dunno why both are same but she rechecked 384K limit and confirmed 25GB).
I need to Register at Airtel.in and check how much I have downloaded/uploaded so far, refreshed every 2 days.

25GB included Data Transfer (Upload + Download)

I had also just got a Modem from them for 1000 bucks non-refundable, asked if I could purchase it outright by paying 800 bucks more. She said no.

Last - I asked them if they still had the 256 UL plan and if I could downgrade. She said sure you can but the limit is then reduced to 15GB.

There you go - Airtel Fair Usage Cheaters & Knaves Policy.

[forum67]

ot-- why hathway is not involved ??

[sevensins]

Originally Posted by forum67

ot-- why hathway is not involved ??

Here is the link Hathway available at the TRAI

[ronnie_gogs]

So I am not clear .... Do I disconnect my Airtel 1 mbps ??

[SidK!!]

what the fruit????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!Are other isps doing this?

[Superfrag]

as of now, no.

[sahilm]

I called up Noida customer care just now. They are again denying the existence of any such policy.
What's going on?

[Superfrag]

maybe the policy is affecting some areas only?