Livin' the life...

Here's a very interesting article I read in Friday's Metro.

"The internet has much bigger problems that slowness (Metro, Wed) - the real issue now is the total amount of data we download today.

Thanks to the recent boom in popularity of streaming and downloading video from the internet, we are all downloading far more data than before. BBC's iPlayer has come under pressure from British internet service providers as the chief culprit thanks to its high-quality video and peer-to-peer network causing an unprecedented increase in data traffic.

As a result, 'unlimited download' packages are no longer financially viable for any ISP, even big names such as BT and Virgin. It's just a matter of time before they start tightening limits, hiking up their prices or even going bankrupt." Edward Noad, London SE1.

Even though some of this guy's comments make things sound a bit gloomier than they are, I do believe in certain cases, he does make some valid and rather pertinent points; one good example is unlimited packages!

Case in point: I remember lately some flat mates and I were perplexed at why our Internet connection was going SUPER slow between the hours of 5pm-12am,.. then we got the word of a possible 'cap' on our downloading between that time. Normally that would not be a problem HOWEVER, last time I checked, we're paying for UNLIMITED Internet! Then again, these days, I guess nothing is 'unlimited', companies (such as my former mobile service provider!!) throw in a 'Fair Usage Policy' which, at its heart, is a mechanism to limit your unlimited access.

Ah well, what can we do? BBC iPlayer is an excellent idea. Possibly we need to get this faster Internet in place asap? Or will we have to revamp every 10 years or so? After all this has the perfect makings for a classical cyclic problem!