Virgin Media CEO Says Net Neutrality is “A Load of Bollocks”
Written by enigmax on April 13, 2008The new CEO of Virgin Media is putting his cards on the table early, branding net neutrality “a load of bollocks” and claiming he’s already doing deals to deliver some people’s content faster than others. If you aren’t prepared to cough up the extra cash, he says he’ll put you in the Internet “bus lane”.
Net neutrality really is the hot topic at the moment. Ignited by the Comcast fiasco, the concept of net neutrality has certainly been brought into the mainstream. Most ISPs are never quite forthcoming about their throttling, capping and otherwise interfering behavior, but that crowd certainly doesn’t include the CEO of Virgin Media, the UK’s second largest ISP.
In an interview with the Royal Television Society’s Television magazine, far from covering up their intentions, Virgin Media’s new incoming CEO Neil Berkett - who joined the Virgin Media Board just a few days ago - has launched an attack on the ideas and principles behind net neutrality.
“This net neutrality thing is a load of bollocks,” he said, adding that Virgin is already in the process of doing deals to speed up the traffic of certain media providers.
With around 3.5 million customers in the UK, and already traffic shaping due to lack of capacity, it’s a sobering thought that at the behest of “content providers” with deep pockets, Virgin is prepared to speed up their traffic, which would presumably have a negative impact on those at the bottom of the ISP’s priority list, namely bandwidth hungry file-sharers.
Berkett then turned on the BBC and their iPlayer service, telling them - and other public broadcasters like them - that if they don’t pay a premium to gain faster access to Virgin Media’s customers, their service would be put into “bus lanes”.
It just shows that some ISPs are happy to throttle just about anyone in the name of profit, it’s just that most aren’t as open about it as Mr Berkett.
via DigitalSpy
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“which would presumably have a negative impact on those at the bottom of the ISP’s priority list, namely bandwidth hungry file-sharers.” yes because no one likes those guys who buy the best packages and pay the most money for their internet nooooo!!! virgin loves all the elderly who buy a $5 a month dial plan so they can email their families … piss off you idiot file sharing IS the internet if there is no file sharing there is no internet
Link to interview: http://www.katebulkley.com/18-19neil_berkett.pdf
“Look, unlimited 20meg broadband, 50meg soon. The only cable isp in the uk.”
There’s no point having the speed if you just get throttled when you use it.
“You can go wrong with virgin, and they do NOT shape traffic, unless you download over 3gb”
Wrong. You can get throttled at 300MB! Look at their Traffic Management page.
Virgin Media are truly the pits.
What a fucker.
Please hurry and give me traffic shaping! I can’t wait for my VOIP calls to get priority over porn browsing and file sharing. Now I have to use my mobile — VOIP is too unreliable. I’m also looking forward to my iTunes movie rentals working in real time (they usually do, but not always).
I love it when people do a Ratners on their own business.
Humble pie in 2 weeks..
Why the hell are all the people paying equally for your service if you are going to control who gets what?
If filesharers are going to be at the bottom, then they should get free connections. Prick.
This is very unfortunate: I rather liked Virgin until now.
They are an international company with a lot of different kinds of operations. Here is a link on Wikipedia to the airlines, trains, games, financial companies, music companies, mobile phones, internet services, mobile phones, cable tv, etc.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Group
I am sure you and I both can find other ways to spend our money than giving it to a company who wants to make Internet communications cheap for the rich and expensive for the poor.
I think a lot of people are completely missing the point here.
Virgin Media, and EVERY other ISP in the UK is complaining that the BBC’s Iplayer is hogging bandwidth.
All Virgin have done is to be vocal about the ‘issue’. Boycotting Virgin media and moving to another ISP will not change the ‘issue’.
Virgin offer you a ‘free’ cable television package which also allows you to watch selected broadcasts from the last 7 days.
Many people have video recorders or DVD recorders which allow them to record and watch at their leisure programmes they would otherwise miss.
And then, there is bittorrent, a brilliant free resource for downloading ‘DRM free’ television programmes etc whenever you want, and available to all.
The BBC’s Iplayer is a P2P application that allows the downloading and sharing of the BBC’s ‘DRM protected’ programming and only useable within the UK.
I imagine there are more users of the Iplayer in the UK than there are users of bittorrent clients, simply because the majority of PC users within
the UK are not internet or bittorrent savvy. And not to mention the recent scare stories in the press concerning ‘Pirates’ and ‘illegal file sharers’ which
have deterred a lot of potential new bittorrent users.
Why did’nt the BBC opt to post their DRM protected programming on a public bittorrent tracker rather than their in-house Iplayer, why did’nt they invest in a few servers
on which to host their downloads? … And why does the BBC persist in the use of ‘Real Player’ for streaming its online programming?..
Will owning a PC with an internet connection now make us liable to pay the ‘Licence fee’because BBC programming is available even though we might not own a television ?
The Iplayer is not the only bone of contention with British ISP’s there is also Channel Fours ‘4OD’ application.
Both broadcasters have ignored public bittorent trackers and free bittorrent clients in favour of in-house applications and DRM protected media.
Now, who really are the ‘bad guys’ in this tale? Virgin? … I don’t think so.
Is this guy the new Gerald Ratner?
Bye bye Virgin! I’m gone…
Virgin Media is slow i use its shit
by Virgin
>>Virgin Media, the UK’s second largest ISP.
Not for long, kids.
[quote comment="344865"]I think a lot of people are completely missing the point here.
Virgin Media, and EVERY other ISP in the UK is complaining that the BBC’s Iplayer is hogging bandwidth.[/quote]
Well, boo hoo. I don’t give a fuck *what* the BBC’s Iplayer is hogging. I don’t care if it’s fueled by dead babies. There’s no excuse whatsoever for breaching net neutrality, and blaming the Iplayer is a particularly shitty excuse, at that.
YOU are missing the point.
[quote comment="345004"]Bye bye Virgin! I’m gone…[/quote]
Where are you going to go?
Read:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/internet-groups-warn-bbc-over-iplayer-plans-461167.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/14/bbc_iplayer_isp_analysis/
I dont work for Sky them and I hate being an ardvert, but since I had telewest a few years ago the only other ISP that I have liked was Sky. £10 for a 16M unlimited connection (admitadly thats if you have a tv package as well, but still), and def not throttled. Was getting episodes of differnt things quicker than I ever have from public trackers.
Ive had to move to another flat at the moment so the only net access I have is at work, I was thinking about getting Virgin when I moved into a new place due to the hype regarding cable and the service I had with Telewest, but I will def be getting Sky again. Crap Tech support though, but you cant have everything.
[quote comment="345036"]>>Virgin Media, the UK’s second largest ISP.
Not for long, kids.
[quote comment="344865"]I think a lot of people are completely missing the point here.
Virgin Media, and EVERY other ISP in the UK is complaining that the BBC’s Iplayer is hogging bandwidth.[/quote]
Well, boo hoo. I don’t give a fuck *what* the BBC’s Iplayer is hogging. I don’t care if it’s fueled by dead babies. There’s no excuse whatsoever for breaching net neutrality, and blaming the Iplayer is a particularly shitty excuse, at that.
YOU are missing the point.[/quote]
What is the point?
Is it that you yearn for a more expensive connection? Is it that you like DRM files? Is it that you prefer the UK only Iplayer over a global bittorrent client like Utorrent etc?
Have you got a point to make?
Surely the “bus lane” is where you put traffic that you want to have an empty lane all to itself and therefore get there faster?
Freckin Brits cant use proper english. I think he means to say Bullshit. Bullocks is not proper to his meaning. I do not endorse his ideals.
I love the passionate arguments regarding Human Rights…Genius!
You are all whining about having your service shaped because you feel that it is your RIGHT to pirate music, movies and warez from BitTorrent (arguments of legitimate use of BitTorrent are soooo lame).
Now water, air, food, shelter the right to protest are all Human Rights…the Internet is not (we don’t need it to exist as a species).
So if an ISP wants to manage data on thier network then so be it….
Frankly If I was him I’d say BitTorrent is not supported period… Go and buy content you pikeys!
[quote comment="345222"]I love the passionate arguments regarding Human Rights…Genius!
You are all whining about having your service shaped because you feel that it is your RIGHT to pirate music, movies and warez from BitTorrent (arguments of legitimate use of BitTorrent are soooo lame).
Now water, air, food, shelter the right to protest are all Human Rights…the Internet is not (we don’t need it to exist as a species).
So if an ISP wants to manage data on thier network then so be it….
Frankly If I was him I’d say BitTorrent is not supported period… Go and buy content you pikeys![/quote]
Now there is some bullshit! There is a million legal torrents out there. So bugger off, you!
[quote comment="345235"][quote comment="345222"]I love the passionate arguments regarding Human Rights…Genius!
You are all whining about having your service shaped because you feel that it is your RIGHT to pirate music, movies and warez from BitTorrent (arguments of legitimate use of BitTorrent are soooo lame).
Now water, air, food, shelter the right to protest are all Human Rights…the Internet is not (we don’t need it to exist as a species).
So if an ISP wants to manage data on thier network then so be it….
Frankly If I was him I’d say BitTorrent is not supported period… Go and buy content you pikeys![/quote]
Now there is some bullshit! There is a million legal torrents out there. So bugger off, you![/quote]
Oh and by the way, electrons are as free (if not more so)as O2.
[quote comment="343458"]
Actually, I think you are cos I don’t understand a word of that.[/quote]
I’m not responsible for your lack of comprehension.
“Threatening the BBC into paying money — to deliver what the customers pay you (—-) for to get?!?”
“What about customers (—) leaving our ‘Virgin virgin’ (aka Mr. Bigmouth here - the very newly assigned CEO!) if he can’t behave?!?”
Does that help you to grasp the general idea?
Allways helping the intellectuelly deprived …. ;)
[quote comment="345246"][quote comment="345235"][quote comment="345222"]I love the passionate arguments regarding Human Rights…Genius!
You are all whining about having your service shaped because you feel that it is your RIGHT to pirate music, movies and warez from BitTorrent (arguments of legitimate use of BitTorrent are soooo lame).
Now water, air, food, shelter the right to protest are all Human Rights…the Internet is not (we don’t need it to exist as a species).
So if an ISP wants to manage data on thier network then so be it….
Frankly If I was him I’d say BitTorrent is not supported period… Go and buy content you pikeys![/quote]
Now there is some bullshit! There is a million legal torrents out there. So bugger off, you![/quote]
Oh and by the way, electrons are as free (if not more so)as O2.[/quote]
I’t the 100 million + illegal torrents that make your number seem small fry…..
Shouty shouty whine whine…I bet you stomped your feet when you wrote the post.
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