Throttled Broadband - Virgin Media

Introduction

Just like the privatised trains, buses, gas, water, telecommunications and electricity now broadband service is beginning to diminish. All these services are vital for prosperity and the government talks about next generation of data transfer mediums such as optic fibres, when we're still relying on copper wire. Broadband Internet services are being restricted nationwide as a cost effective stategy, especially during the recession. Now broadband subscribers services are being curtailed to that resembling the archaic dial up transfer rates 50kbps. So much for revolutionary broadband, and yes I'm annoyed with the fallacious "unlimited" term used by ISP's. This is redundant, misleading and should be removed from all advertising streams forthwith, no longer shall the infamous asterisk (*) malign the word broadband. Furthermore the term known as "fair use policy" shall be clearly defined concisely and coherently within advertisements, and in detail in layman's terms online.

Wack It Down

If you've ever spoken with individuals from broadband technical support you'd recognise their priggishness instantly. However this ignores the very heart of the matter which is paying over the odds for a mediocre service. Some people enjoy watching films, documentaries and humorous clips music on youtube, iplayer and other sites streaming video and music. Nevertheless if you're the lone user of the service then these throttling methods seems harsh and unjust, especially when users are condemned for eternity. Families with spoofed routers to accommodate multiple terminals, Internet TV and online console gaming are susceptible to such restrictive methods. In the eyes of these corporatised pirates they feel these inequitable methods are supported by the silence from the regulating authorities.

Once again a tawdry service sold as state of the art, more like the smell of a lingering fart. Majority of the poor families are still subsidising a service that will become redundant in the years ahead. Can we expect more of these "cost effective measures" respun and marketed as "quality control" and the god forsaken "fair use policy" ? Of course their are a small minority of individuals that use their terminals as seeders of films, games and software, but the vast majority don't do that on a daily basis. Internet service providers recognise this unfortunately they fail to act in a equitable way. Easier for them to tar everyone that has watched too many youtube videos, or downloaded demos on their consoles or as a family with many terminals and users exceed their daily requirements.

Degradation of Regulation

To think all these unproductive schemes will propel the United Kingdom into the forefront of the information age, you're having a laugh. Why do these ISP's (Internet service provider) do this and get away with it ? Because they can and they will for quangos like Ofcom are incompetent and ineffective in regulating the industry just like the FSA (financial services authority) with the banking fiasco that brought us the credit crunch aka recession.

Instead of having qualified barristers and lawyers in the government and wheedling their way out of facts and truths in their rhetorical bouts between one another, we have ineptitude and crassitude from the civil servants employed within the bureaucratic quangos. If these quangos that are to supposedly regulate elements of industry and safeguard corporate misuse and injustices, then shouldn't we expect a public inquiry ?we may have a decent and efficient industry.

Time to detribalise the parties and instead of choosing groups of influential families chosen by the unseen hands to represent sections of society, we should allow righteous and just people from the towns, villages, suburbs and cities throughout the land the opportunity to stand. Yes no more parties just independents accountable to their constituents and not the whims of the party whips. Proportional representation will do away with the traditional block westminister seats allocated unfairly. Until accountability and justice are actively sought then the irrefutable culpable and frivolous behaviour of politicians will continue.

Future Prosperity is Necessity

Once upon a time as a customer of Telewest they delivered a truly unlimited service, no terms of "fair use", "throttling" or "data capping" were used. You actually paid for a service you received without qualms or paranoid illusions of the service providers ulterior motives. Content with the broadband service one thought it couldn't get any better, until the takeover by Virgin media and Richard Branson initiated his cost effective measures. He managed to cut more corners than easyjet and ryanair combined, he didn't get to his position without doing so.

What a farce in comparison to the Scandinavian countries where 100mbs optic fiber broadband is standard, and we're still fiddling with copper wire. Despite this the corporations will deal with you like the politicians do as mushrooms, we're kept in the dark and fed manure. If you willing to accept this deplorable level of service and pay for it then you deserve what you get.

Even third world nations are beginning to enter the information age with fiber optic broadband, and yet we are content with the mediocre Internet service. Enough is enough its time these service providers began investing all those profits they make each year into redeveloping the network. Unfortunately like the trains, buses and roads the shareholders will continue to enjoy profits year on year as we accept a restricted and diminishing service. Thats what happens when an inept government promotes incompetent civil servants as ombudsman and quangos to regulate the industry.

Whatever next ISP's providing broadband packages similar to offers available on mobile phones ? 10,k image views, 5hrs of video, 3hrs of music and 20k of text data for £15 per month ! Sounds absurd but these corporations have control over the corporate fascistically inclined government eroding accountability and civil liberties, besides when the CONserveatives take the reigns you can expect more draconian legislation, stealth taxes, diminishing public services and big brother initiatives.

How is the United Kingdom supposed to compete with other western economies when the tap of prosperity is controlled by a few dinosaur shareholders ? We are in the age of the Internet and if you cant develop ahead of those nations that have access to information at superluminal rates then you'll fade away into the ether. Time is money and the more time you waste trying to access or download information from the Internet, the wealth will always evade your grasp. Meanwhile those Scandinavian countries will become decades ahead of us as information technological advancement doubles each year and they'll have developed new technologies and ways to access information faster year by year.

We'll remain with out copper wired broadband being restricted from 1pm till 10pm the period of time when business and entrepreneurs do their trade. Does the government aim to keep people at home on unemployment benefit, and playing on their consoles all day ? Or just check and send emails ? If so then give people dial up service and negate broadband from the poor. Again the haves and have-nots a capitalistic byproduct, the rich are most likely to sign up to the exclusive packages of 50mbs and have truly unlimited service. The opulent are more likely to adopt a leased line and that guarantees high speed 24/7 unlimited broadband service. As for the rest of us will have to accept our place in society and moan about pages loading and become irate looking at the blinking modem lights losing connectivity all night.

Finally

Gordon Brown bleats on about his parties commitment to the information age and promotes initiatives to lead us there, by providing the rest of the U.K with broadband. Surely you jest, prime minister ? Why commit tax payers money, decades of resources, time and effort in providing a temperamental and unreliable service ? Simply governments like to tick boxes for electioneering purposes, so when the time comes they make platitudes and embellish their egos. After they've outlived their purpose and no longer in the minds of the public in the years to come they say "i did that".

Only way to limit a farce is to make a larger one in order to hide the earlier one. Besides these contracts are merely a job for the boys , once schoolboys in public schools and members of the elite all of them have their fingers in each others pies. It's difficult to distinguish between truth and lies especially when politicians are involved. The current revilement from the public at the scandalous behaviour from our elected civil servants, is an indication of how bad things have become.

Listen to the parable about our politicians in government today, the expenses scandal, illegal conflicts, failing public services, irresponsibility and malfeasance is tells us never to believe these party sworn members. Trust in independents that reside in the communities they're supposed to represent, know thy self and those whom wish to represent us. Governance from the grassroots and not from the opulent, influential families and aristocrats of the past generations. As it was said by the maniac street preachers "if you tolerate this, then you're children will be next".