Bell has decided to start throttling their internet service. I’m not a Bell customer, having left Rogers for Teksavvy when Rogers started throttling their network. However because Bell owns the cables that run into your (and my) house, Teksavvy’s and all other 3rd party ISPs that use Bell’s phone lines will also be throttled.
Bell’s argument is that they need to throttle to make sure all their customers get a fair share of the bandwidth. They do have another option. They could improve the network so that it is capable of providing the service its customers are paying for (and capable providing the service that Bell advertises).
If an ISP decides to degrade its service instead of improving the network today, what is going to happen as internet services become more bandwidth intensive? As time goes on more people are going to be using more and more bandwitdh. Downloading media from the internet is only going to increase. Services like Hulu, iTunes and XBox Marketplace all allow for downloading of movies. Steam, Stardock, XBox, PS3 and Wii allow users to purchase and download games over the internet. All of these services will use more bandwitdh and have more customers in the future. What about VOIP and Video chat? Increasing the quality of these services will also increase their bandwidth requirements.
Throttling is like putting a band aid on a bullet hole. It is a short sighted solution that is bound to fail. The only way to provide sufficient bandwidth to a growing customer base with growing bandwidth needs is to increase the capabilities of the network.