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pigeonfriend

Listed below are comments made by pigeonfriend between Wednesday, 1st October 2008 and Thursday, 11th June 2009.

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BT and the iPlayer 07:49am on 11 Jun 2009 @33 giantBikerider:
BBC *does* pay for its bandwidth, however indrectly, it pays for its bandwidth. [NB: iPlayer *doesn't* use P2P (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/12/introducing_iplayer_deskto.html)]

Even if it did use P2P (which i still think it should for the reasons you outline, plus it can only offer a better service to others), they pay for the bandwidth to get it to people and if they choose to send that data to another user, then that is their choice and they pay for that bandwidth themself.

If the BBC offer a service which 'slows down' peoples' internet connections, that isn't there fault. It is the fault of the ISP that is unable to cope with the demand from their users. It is users that cause the problem, not the content providers.

Just because Blizzard charge a sbscription doesn't mean WoW pays for its bandwidth anymore than the BBC, everytime someone plays WoW they use their personal bandwidth allowance to do so. Blizzard don't give the ISPs a bit of money towards it too.

The BBC is *not* getting around costs as you imply.
BT and the iPlayer 9:02pm on 10 Jun 2009 @28 giantBikerider:
That is rubbish! BT charge users for bandwidth, thus, anything that the user uses, is paid for. No one makes that user view streamed media, they will do it if they wish and it will take some of that bandwidth they have paid for. For BT to then expect double payment for it is ridiculous.

Also, P2P transmissions with in the BT network should not be a problem, the problem is data at the gateways between BTs networks.

Obviously one 'greedy' user's use shouldn't have a negative impact on anothers, and the fact that it does says more about the set-up BT use than the usage habbits of the 'greedy' user. If BT are offering a service, then they need to be able to meet their obligations without getting funding from content providers!

Ok, so the BBC pay for their bandwidth and that is for their data center. But the data center use that money to pay for the bandwidth they use when they send the data onto the net and then BT pay when the same happens. So the BBC pays for its bandwidth, they aren't getting a free ride, nobody is.

The point has been raised earlier, if BBC stops people accessing this content, let's see how long they have broadband customers for.

Throttling is hardly the answer. The answer is to price and sell broadband packages realistically and to not over sell. Selling 100 'up to 8mbps' lines to customers when only 10 of those lines could actually max out at a time (numbers for arguments sake only) is not feasible. BT are trying to maximise profit.

The simplest solution is to price bandwidth to a user at a realistic price and then charge people per GB, just like your telephone. Let people pay a 'rental' charge (which can include however many GB) and then each GB on top can be 10p and hey presto! We have people paying for what they use!

PS: Oh, what's this? BT upgrading lines to 20mbps?! [http://www.btplc.com/news/articles/showarticle.cfm?articleid=%7B04baed28-4a23-4dbc-9250-1f0a4ace808d%7D] If they can't handle the load on their network at 8mbps, then this is crazy! They only have themselves to blame.
BT and the iPlayer 4:20pm on 10 Jun 2009 This seems like a very odd stance from BT.

BT charge customers for bandwidth, they have different tiered 'packages' that they offer their users, each with a different limit for the amount of data they can use. Thus, they are charging users per GB. Also, once a user goes over their quota, they are charged a disproportionate amount per GB.

So now BT want money from content providers too? This seems incredibly unwarranted. If BT are having such an issue with the data usage on their networks, then they need to sort out their networks and get the users to pay for the data they are using.

BT shouldn't go after legal content providers i would imagine that the amount of illegal P2P that goes on BT's network would dwarf the data use of the iPlayer.

And why all this fuss over the iPlayer? Why is it different from the similar service offered by Channel 4, ITV and Sky? Why is it different from Google, YouTube, Facebook? These are all high data usage services which would significantly reduce data on BT's network if blocked.

The beauty of the internet is that anyone can access any service that is on the internet, there should be no extra fee for getting content from specific services.

Plus we have to remember that the BBC will have to pay their ISP for any data that they send, so it's hardly fair for them to pay twice because they offer a popular service.

The day that content providers have to pay for users to access their content should be the day internet connections are free (and i never want that to happen)!
Phorm's phlat product launch 10:41pm on 03 Jun 2009 Can people confirm that Phorm works as so:
1) User browses web - request sent to website
2) Phorm sees that you have requested somesite.tld
3) Phorm checks the keywords/content of this site (from an index it has built up by spidering the web)
4) Repeating this process builds up a profile on you as same keywords will appear more.
5) Phorm's adverts will then show on sites that are signed up.

If it is, a couple questions:
a) Surely it can only identify a user by IP address. So potentially it is the usage of many people that could contribute to adverts, making them irrelevant
b) Dynamic IPs cause an issue?
The culture of copying 11:58am on 30 May 2009 The problems are many and the reasons people download 'illegally' are vast.

But what is clear is that the people are not happy with the current copyright legislation. People clearly feel that sharing content that they have is not illegal and in a democracy [i believe] it is the will of the people that rules.

There needs to be a simple and cost effective distribution network so that people can see an alternative to illegal file-sharing.

The great thing about current illegal file-sharing sites is that users can get the content they want as they want it, most importantly they can pick the quality of the download; whether it be 1080p high def films or 96kbps mp3s, people have unprecidented choice, it is unmatched anywhere else on the web.

Whether the music and film companies are making money (which they are) is irelevant because the current copyright legislation is so ridiculously outdated once someone pays for the license to whatch or listen to something, they should be able to then get that in any digital form they want without prosecution, the fact that i have had to buy films on VHS, DVD and now Blu-Ray is ridiculous. There is NO cost to the industry if I buy a DVD and then download a 1080p version of a film, they invest NOTHING in the illegal sites.
Game-changers - Google or Apple? 8:49pm on 17 Feb 2009 I will also add, the biggest influence on the mobile market (as a manufacturer) over the last two decades is clearly Nokia.

They are giants of the industry and constantly lead the way in new technologies and features.

The mobile phone industry is like any other, the consumers get what they want. If the consumer wants a touch screen that does whatever the iPhone does that others can't, then others will encoporate that into their phones.

It's like saying Firefox shouldn't have implemented tabbed browsing because the idea had already been done.

If people are so passionate about not copying other ideas, then ask apple to remove the web browser (already done on a phone), a camera (same again), a way to store contacts (as before)... Oh, and of course the ability to make a phone call. How unoriginal of Apple to not come up with their own ideas! Hell, to me it seems like these mobile phones seemed to have copied the primary function of landline phones!
Game-changers - Google or Apple? 8:35pm on 17 Feb 2009 I'm stunned...

You are the BBC's Tech correspondant and you can't get on the internet on a Nokia N95??
Broadband Britain - slowly getting faster? 6:18pm on 15 Dec 2008 Also, i would like to add that speedtests are very unreliable. They can be swayed by things like the speed of the users computer, whether the test is done over wireless or not, how busy the test server is, etc.

I have run multiple tests one after the other on my computers and i can get quotes ranging from 0.5mBps to 2mBps.

The best way to test your speed is to download a large file and see what happens. I know i can hit over 2mBps which puts me around 16mbps connection.

But then we have to remember the overheads that don't go towards your download speed, packet data has to be transmitted but doesnt count towards your transfer speed as it's not counted as 'useful' data, you have start/stop bits, check bits, and all the other TCP header data.
Broadband Britain - slowly getting faster? 6:10pm on 15 Dec 2008 @9 - ojhilt

Ok, firstly, if we are going to be accurate about speeds, let's use correct notation. b = bits, B = bytes. Thus, 8mbps ~ 0.96mBps.

And you have never seen anyone get over 350kBps on home adsl!? Well, i have known LOTS of people, i have in two houses had 1.5mBps and 2mBps as well as friedns getting similar speeds.

@12 - friendlyonewhocares
Up to is perfectly legitimate way of advertising it if they do allow people to get that speed if possible (based on location, etc) as they do let users get those speeds at the exchange, but when a user connects to the exchange the harware checks what speed is possible and connects at that speed. I've had ISPs tell me that i will get only 1mbps when signing up to an 8mbps package and i got 8mbps on the dot, that is more annoying!

All the country needs is an overhall, remove the copper phone lines and replace them with fibre-optic cables, then we could get gbps to the house, not just mbps. That would cost a fair bit in upgrades and i couldnt imagine the amount of hardware that would be needed for a few people to have it! But hey, we can dream.
Google's good old days 11:32am on 01 Oct 2008 Thank you for wasting a minute of my life...

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