[178392] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Verizon Policy Statement on Net Neutrality
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Miles Fidelman)
Fri Feb 27 13:28:08 2015
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2015 13:04:59 -0500
From: Miles Fidelman <mfidelman@meetinghouse.net>
To: "nanog@nanog.org" <nanog@nanog.org>
In-Reply-To: <9578293AE169674F9A048B2BC9A081B4015725DE22@MUNPRDMBXA1.medline.com>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
Naslund, Steve wrote:
> That statement completely confuses me. Why is asymmetry evil? Does th=
at not reflect what "Joe Average User" actually needs and wants? The stat=
ement that the average users *MUST* have the same pipes going UP as he do=
es going DOWN does not reflect reality at all. Do a lot of your users wa=
nt to stream 4K video to their friends UHD TV? Given that all transmissi=
on media has some sort of bandwidth limit it would seem to me that asymme=
try is actually more fair for the user since he gets more of what he need=
s which is download speed. There is no technical reason that it can't be=
symmetric it is just a reflection of what the market wants. As an ISP I=
can tell you that a lot more people complaint about their download speed=
s than their upload speeds. Do you think that you (or the average home u=
ser) would be happier with 27.5 down and 27.5 up vs your 50 down and 5 up=
you have today? Don't tell me you want 50 down and 50 up because that i=
s a different bandwidth total that requires a faster transmission media.
>
> Do you actually believe that average users are suffering with a 5 mbps =
upstream? I don't. I just don't see the average user "freely interchangi=
ng ideas" at more than 5 mbps. I don't feel like "Big Brother" forced me=
to watch Netflix and my next door neighbor just doesn't provide a lot of=
engaging HD content that I just must see.
From a user point of view, it's not so much asymmetry as it is low peak =
upload speeds, which hurt you for things like:
- network backup
- video conferencing (NOT an argument for symmetry, though - your only=20
sending your stream, you're receiving multiple streams)
- uploading large files (5 minutes to upload the latest version of a=20
report to the office, sending a large photo album or video of an event,=20
particularly annoying, I expect to folks who shoot a lot of video
Having said all that, has anyone else noticed that Verizon has been=20
pushing symmetric bandwidth in their new FIOS plans? Not sure how well=20
it's working though - a lot of the early deployment is BPON, which tops=20
out at 155Mbps for uploads - theoretically, I have 25/25 service, but=20
I've occasionally seen my uploads fall to 100kbps (yes that's a k). =20
Highly intermittent though - Verizon's techs have been having lots of=20
fun trying to track things down.
Miles Fidelman
--=20
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra
