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12 June
At the mercy of ISPs (Internet Service Providers)
Gatekeepers and the small print...
by
SoftwareGuru
05th June 2009
Any parent or guardian who has ever had
major problems with their Internet Service Provider (ISP) will
know how incredibly frustrating it is.
Without internet access many of the daily and weekly tasks we
take for granted suddenly become impossible.
Dealing with ISP telephone customer support can often be equally
frustrating as you try to navigate your way through the maze of
eternal options.
If MPs wish to rebuild their credibility after the expenses
scandal, they could do a lot worse then advocating for reliable,
affordable internet access for all UK homes - especially those
in rural areas.
With more people shopping online and working from home, not to
mention working mothers, it is an issue which also has a direct
impact on the economy.
Sweden even has a MEP after last week's European elections whose
main manifesto policy concerned the freedom to fileshare! So
much for Ireland and France's three strike rule...
Parents, guardians and other internet users won't realise how we
are all at the mercy of our ISP until there is a problem.
It's only then do we realise that our choice of ISP probably had
a lot to do with their marketing campaign and very little to do
with their small print.
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Dubious Terms and Conditions
From a legal point of view, all companies do their utmost to
limit their liability for mistakes and reserve rights concerning
their services.
For ISPs, the small print usually says they can make the rules
up as they go along. It is debatable how many of their terms and
conditions would hold up in court.
One of the classic examples of this is the widely abused term
"reasonable usage policy". ISPs claim this is to stop users who
excessively download, thereby damaging the overall user
experience of others.
The truth is this: it is a cost-cutting mechanism which
can be used at their discretion.
Parents who are BT customers have recently been widely
complaining online that their internet connections have been
slowing down at 6pm to the point where the BBC iPlayer will not
work at all.
If YouTube stand to make a loss of $470 million this year due to
bandwidth and server costs, you can be confident that
many UK
ISPs will do everything they can to limit your bandwidth usage
as much as possible - regardless of how little you use.
Your monthly fee doesn't change so the less bandwidth they give
you, the lower their costs are.
Download speeds have been an area of contention for quite some
time but forget the usual "up to 8mb" marketing gimmick.
How about a solid 1mb connection at peak times?
Or not causing 3rd party ISP connections to suddenly stop
working on a BT landline?
It's verging on the Google approach as described by .Net
magazine writer Gary Marshall, "nice business you've got
there, it'd be a shame if anything were to happen to it."
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Party Politics
Now that the UK Government has been informed that internet usage
is as fundamental as any other utility service, it's about time
Labour stepped up and illustrated real leadership on this issue.
Regardless of your own political persuasion, it's clear from
their policies as well as their online behaviour that both the
Lib Dems and the Conservatives GET the internet.
It's hard to argue the same for Mr. Brown and his party who
appear to be out of touch with everyone and everything.
For all of the impressive progress made under New Labour, Gordon
Brown has somehow managed to undo all of the work achieved over
the Blair era in less time than it takes to call a general
election.
Many parents and internet users will have their own nightmare
stories of problems with their ISP.
It remains to be seen which is harder to change, your ISP or
your PM.
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Posted by
admin
at
12:53
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