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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 in Ireland who has
experienced
major problems with their Internet Service Provider (ISP) will
know how 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 politicians running in local elections are developing their
policies they could do a lot worse then advocating for reliable,
affordable internet access for all Irish 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!
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.
If YouTube stand to make a loss of $470 million this year due to
bandwidth and server costs, you can be confident that
many 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, so how about a reliable connection at peak times?
Are ISPs holding us to ransom?
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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Innovation and Technology
Many parents and internet users will have their own nightmare
stories of problems with their ISP.
With manufacturing jobs in Ireland such as those at Dell
relocating to Poland, the Irish economy must now face up to the
reality that the online service industry is of huge importance
for the future.
If Ireland is to succeed in the digital service era then the
infrastructure for reliable, ultra high speed, affordable
broadband must be put into place.
The difficulties facing the Irish economy are many. Students
graduating are facing an ever greater task to gain employment.
The issue of student debt remains a large hurdle for those less
well off.
The Irish government would do well not to underestimate the role
of next generation communications as a way of enabling the
creation of prosperity in this country.
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Posted by
admin
at
12:53
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Read more about the
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issues at Software4Students.