No Evidence of Network Congestion, Report Says
You're probably aware of the changes in broadband pricing that some ISPs are considering, such as removing flat rate “unlimited†plans in favor for tiered or metered usage-based plans. The providers claim that traffic increases from P2P sharing and streaming sites like Hulu and YouTube is threatening to overwhelm their infrastructure. Free Press, released a report that calls out these ISPs and challenged the “network congestion†reasoning that these providers are using.
You're probably aware of the changes in broadband pricing that some ISPs are considering, such as removing flat rate “unlimited†plans in favor for tiered or metered usage-based plans. The providers claim that traffic increases from P2P sharing and streaming sites like Hulu and YouTube is threatening to overwhelm their infrastructure. Free Press, released a report that calls out these ISPs and challenged the “network congestion†reasoning that these providers are using.
Predictions about the Internet collapsing under its traffic flow have been popular since at least 1995, when InfoWorld's Bob Metcalfe wrote a piece entitled "Predicting the Internet's Catastrophic Collapse and Ghost Sites Galore in 1996." Metcalfe wrote, "Almost all of the many predictions now being made about 1996 hinge on the Internet's continuing exponential growth. But I predict the Internet … will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse."
