CaseyBob

I had not intended to take part in this discussing because of your opening premise, i.e. Broadband throttling had not been discussed in this forum. I, myself, have taken part in (and contributed to) many such discussions simply because broadband throttling is just not a US problem it is a worldwide problem. If you check this forum carefully, you will find that people from all over the world are complaining about this and asking what they can do about it.

Now that you have been shown some discussion links, by the ever resourceful Wondering Why, you will now understand that this forum has deeper, more informed discussions than you first gave us credit for.

JohnyBoy

Like you, I am a UK Limewire user and I also feel hard done by the British ISPs, you see I originally moved from Virgin to Bulldog to escape broadband throttling. However, now bulldog has been taken over by Pipex (who have an anti-P2P policy)and NTL, who was the only other UK ISP not to throttle P2P usage, has now been taken over by Virgin.

A friend of mine, who is still with NTL, says that Virgin plan to start, what they call, “User Profiling”, which probably means throttling high-usage customers.

And I also agree with you when you said: It flies in the face of our “Sale of Goods Act”. But it seems that unless someone is willing to take on an ISP in court, like that chap who took on the banks over their excessive bank charges, they will continue to advertise unlimited service while throttling P2P usage.

Finally, I would like to know Ofcom’s position on P2P throttling, after all, they are the body that is supposed to regulate ISPs and protect the consumer from misleading adverts and arbitrarily imposed regulations.

I feel an email to Ofcom coming on.



UK Bob

PS. OFCOM is a UK regulatory body covering TV and Radio broadcasting, telecommunications and wireless communications services.

> Like you, I am a UK Limewire user and I also feel hard done by the British ISPs

broadband was very late/slow in getting going in the first place here i think -- BT. i remember working in london in the early/mid 90s and BT were running work from home telecommute ads on the tube. the place i now live (less than 100 miles from london) broadband was only actually available at all a few years ago. dial up was the only option until not too long ago. that's over 10 years after they're running telecommute ads (for which you surely require broadband -- they were showing video conferencing i think in the ads). and the uk is what, the fourth richest country in the world? and it's densely populated and small compared with others so easier to cover. and we've been in a telecommunications revolution for the last so many years. and, BT have a communications network monopoly in the UK... stunning.

>Finally, I would like to know Ofcom’s position on P2P throttling, after all, they are the body that is supposed to regulate ISPs and protect the consumer from misleading adverts and arbitrarily imposed regulations.

yes, it's not the p2p throttling issue itself alone which is the key issue, it's that, in conjunction with the way the service/products is offered; a company can offer whatever product with as many restrictions as they want -- they just have to be upfront about it. and clearly tiscali, and i'm sure others, have not been upfront to many, many people. i suppose a lot of the people don't even know they're being restricted though, therefore isn't an issue for them.

it really is clearly a legal issue. as well as ofcom there's ASA, the advertising standards authority.