NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] The Once and Future King: Multicast looks to (finally) be the future of television.
this article from cringley may explain some isps behavior: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20071221_003697.html snip See, multicast IS a resource hog. But to more and more ISPs multicast is looking like the best answer to a huge bandwidth problem, while also being a sneaky way to take back control of the Internet. The first problem ISPs are facing is that they are running out of IP addresses. Many, including Comcast (my ISP), are already reusing IP addresses on subnets and are rapidly moving toward IPv6. The second problem these ISPs are facing is they are running out of bandwidth at layers 1 and 2 of the OSI protocol stack. We're not talking so much about Internet bandwidth here but Intranet bandwidth -- bandwidth within the ISP's own cable plant -- and this loss they blame primarily on P2P file-sharing services. In order to lower their bandwidth bills, ISPs are trying to take greater control of the way we, their customers, use our "unlimited" bandwidth. So Verizon and a lot of other DSL and wireless data providers are placing download caps on their monthly service while Comcast has been traffic shaping to limit the growth of P2P file-sharing services like BitTorrent. This is all intended less to slap us around and more to keep ISP costs in line so they can -- big secret coming -- CONTINUE TO MAKE NEARLY ALL THEIR PROFIT FROM PROVIDING INTERNET SERVICE. You think your phone company makes a lot of profit on voice and long distance or that your cable company makes a lot on carrying video channels? Think again. Comcast barely breaks even on video and makes a killing on Internet and VoIP. If cable company Internet subscriptions fall, those companies are in real trouble. Why, then, would they risk alienating us, their customers? Because they think we are stupid, for one. And because they intend to offer us alternatives, like IP Multicast. Both Comcast and Verizon are rapidly rolling out IP multicast, as I am sure most big cable and telephone ISPs are. Even Verizon's fiber-to-the-home service, FiOS, is moving to multicast because it was architected in a dumb way that sorely limits what should be a lot of throughput. snip