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
Previously: Demonoid Is Back Online
Next: YouTorrent Goes Legal, and Up For Sale
229 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 8 9 10 » Show All
[quote comment="343583"][quote comment="343545"][quote comment="343350"][quote comment="343339"]If you’re in the UK check out this website for a list of all the decent ISPs.
Virgin Media are 2nd to last with a pathetic 3.3/10!
http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php
I can personally say good things about zen.co.uk - clear monthly caps and no traffic shaping whatsoever.[/quote]
I think you’ll find it is 6.75/10, not 3.3, no one uses the adsl version any more.
Look, unlimited 20meg broadband, 50meg soon. The only cable isp in the uk. You can go wrong with virgin, and they do NOT shape traffic, unless you download over 3gb between 7pm-9pm, then you are resitricted to 5meg for 10 hours[/quote]
The limits are between 4 and 9PM, I don’t know where you got 7 and 9. Also, they don’t cut your line at 50%, I’m on 4mbit and when throttled technically I should be on 2. This is not the case, as I can barely load a web-page at all, let alone at 2mbit. Don’t trust everything you read on the Virgin site.[/quote]
Although it oughtta be right by 9PM, I’ve been still being shaped well after 10:30PM…[/quote]
You’d like to think so wouldn’t you. Turns out, no matter when you reach your limit, they’ll cap you for the full 5 hours. Say you hit your limit at 8:59, you’ve got a nice 5 hour capping to look forward to from then. Awfully good of them to do so, isn’t it?
Uh. Bus lanes are faster than normal lanes. The man’s an idiot.
I would think of the “bus lane” as a place special traffic goes to allow it to be faster. So quite how saying that to the BBC is a threat, I don’t know!
Virgin Media broadband was rubbish. Traffic managed after reaching a ludicrously low daily limit, and frequently down so I had no connection at all. If you want to complain, it means calling a rip off premium rate number. I’m glad I ditched them.
by FugaziQuote Fugazi
@60
When Dick Bollocks or whatever his name was is talking about bus lane, he’s probably imagining things. Things like “schedule”, “waiting at the bus stop”, “driver”, “bus ticket”, “surveillance camera”.
*cough Phorm cough..
http://www.fipr.org
http://www.openrightsgroup.org
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ispphorm/
check out who Phorm are what their Webwise system is, how it is planning on intercepting your webtraffic to profile the information on each web page you view (including http webmail) then look who’s planning in implementing it.. there’s your surveilance..
http://www.badphorm.co.uk/page.php?2
http://www.antiphormleague.com/index.php
nice info Bob Dobbs, hadnt heard about that phorms shite, it all sounds a bit cheeky to me
anyone thinking of getting virgin media, i wouldnt bother they have poor internets, poor customer service and they charge you for services that you dont have, then they dont refund your money and ignore every attempt you make at contacting them
There liars and thieves
what an ass.
““““““““““`
http://www.warez-bb.org
@ comment #2: “PS : Just Asking , Is There Any ISP Which Give Proper ‘ Unlimited Connection ” ?
http://www.np10.co.uk/broadband.html
[quote comment="343220"]I’m currently with Virgin. If his actions are as big as his words, I along with thousands of other file-sharers wiil be leaving.. Give your customers what they want, dont persecute them. What a prick![/quote]
That’s exactly what he wants anyways. After all, you file sharers are what cost the ISP money, probably more than you pay. If you leave then there is less congestion on the network and less money paid in bandwidth costs.
@93 Bob Dobbs
Thanks for the links. I read about it on the Light Blue Touchpaper blog.
http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2008/04/04/the-phorm-webwise-system/
Phorm is an underworldly case for parasitic behaviour. They don’t want to sell you the newspaper while you’re waiting at the red light. They want to stop you on the highway, write down where you’re coming from, where you’re going and what you’re doing here. And to prevent you from becoming angry at them, they pretend to be someone else and give you a ton of flyers to distract you.
I hope the petition http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ispphorm/ gets signed by loads of people. Well done to post it here, Bob.
azureus is running a check on all isp’s through a dl’d ad-on…and it shows ALL uk isp’s throttle…i’m with virgin and staying.Why ? getting a average of about 18.5 meg dl on a 20 meg line and dling between 2-3 meg with bittorrent
[quote comment="345826"]azureus is running a check on all isp’s through a dl’d ad-on…and it shows ALL uk isp’s throttle…i’m with virgin and staying.Why ? getting a average of about 18.5 meg dl on a 20 meg line and dling between 2-3 meg with bittorrent[/quote]
That’s bollocks, not all ISPs throttle.
Virgin are shit, and I recommend all current customers to change. I’ve used both cable and adsl services, and things go wrong all the time, their customer service is a joke and its a premium cost line, so your paying to get to get a problem fixed that was their fault in the first place. Speeds on adsl are crap, and not because of exchange distance but because they ARE limiting your speeds. All that advertising jargon about unlimited and incredible speeds is a pile of toss.
@93 Bob Dobbs
Thanks for the links. I read about it on the Light Blue Touchpaper blog.
http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2008/04/04/the-phorm-webwise-system/
Phorm is an underworldly case for parasitic behaviour. They don’t want to sell you the newspaper while you’re waiting at the red light. They want to stop you on the highway, write down where you’re coming from, where you’re going and what you’re doing here. And to prevent you from becoming angry at them, they pretend to be someone else and give you a ton of flyers to distract you.
I hope the petition http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ispphorm/ gets signed by loads of people. Well done to post the link, Bob.
Currently ISPs have to choose between either giving everyone a slow connection, or implement traffic shaping. the latter is infinitely preferable to them because they earn money from content providers and can still advertise a fast connection.
The root cause of the problem (in the UK at least), is network that isnt fit for purpose. Currently, the average UK internet connection lags behind most third world countries.
its a waste of time complaining that ISPs do not treat us fairly, because the problem is only going to get worse until the capacity is increased considerably, and this could only be achieved by installing thousands of miles of new fibre optic cables in the UK alone
[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]
WTF who said anything about pirating? Frakkin Ahole learn to read. My government sees the Internet as a basic human right service now, just as water and electricity. There will come rules as there is already for the other human needs services, those rules will hopefully ban the unjust trafic shaping occuring today.
As said, noone cuts your water because your neighbur needs more and is willing to pay more, WILL NEVER HAPPEN! Water is a human right to have access to, untampered access and so should the internet be too, it will be soon but its not quite there yet.
ISPs taking matters into their own hands has NOTHING to do with piracy, its greed. Fiber got unlimited bandwith but instead of raising subs for awhile so they can install it where its needed they frack their users. The problem with bandwith are the switches, they are expensive but jsut a minute increase in subs and most ISPs will have those switches all over the country: Bandwith problem solved.
“Most” European ISPs invest heavely in infrastructure and thus buy these switches instead of screwing their customers, look at Sweden are they doing mutch shitty stuff like other places in the world? Not realy just the small almost unheard of ISPs. US is so far behind most ISPs will change to bandwith related fees, UK i hope are better off then most of those places.
For those that dont know by now, sweden is basicly the largest Bittorrent infestation in the world, and no bandwith problems severe enough to screw customers by making “bus lanes” and slowing down normal trafic by giving more bandwith to the “bus lanes”.
Basicly with their “bus lane” idea, they steal your bandwith and gives it to people who pay, imagine when they run out of bandwith completely (witch they will if they keep this up), you buy your 50mb/sec uber connection and viola your browsing with a k56 modem again!
Thats what Net neutrality is all about preventing.
Anyways end of discussion for me.
[quote comment="345524"]
Virgin Media broadband was rubbish. Traffic managed after reaching a ludicrously low daily limit, and frequently down so I had no connection at all. If you want to complain, it means calling a rip off premium rate number. I’m glad I ditched them.[/quote]
Virgin allow you download as much as you want. It does not apply traffic shaping between the hours of 9pm and 4pm the following day. 19 hours of unshaped downloading.
If your download speeds seem slow maybe the fault lies with your PC.
Are you using the ethernet connection or wireless and USB? Have you a firewall running?
Are you on a Virgin fibre optic connection?
About 12% of the load on my website comes from Virgin customers. As virgin are obviously putting a disproportional load on my little bit of the network, would the be prepared to provide me with a details of how I should bill them for the network traffic THEY’RE generating on MY network?
And Yes - the BBC should charge Virgin and/or traffic shape them (or cut them off). Virgin generates traffic for everyone else’s networks…
[quote comment="344666"]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).[/quote]
Who says you’re no already being shaped? You just said that you’re using your mobile… Is it a Virgin Mobile contact / plan?
huh? any content provider who does pay will gett heir traffic put in a ‘bus lane’ ? but the bus lane is uncongested, guaranteed to flow during heavy traffic periods and can carry more people when its fully loaded.
so yay! stick ALL my traffic in that there bus lane.
what an idiot. one of those management people who should engage their brain before speaking!
5 references to this post
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 8 9 10 » Show All
Add your response