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I really, really hate to defend mobile carriers, but... Congestion is a real thing. Mobile subscribers are now using significantly more data due to video strea

by QUFB 7y ago

I really, really hate to defend mobile carriers, but... Congestion is a real thing. Mobile subscribers are now using significantly more data due to video streaming, and wireless carriers aren't expanding their capacity fast enough. 5G won't help for most of CONUS. Millimeter wave 5G, which will help, will only be deployed in urban areas. Mid-band and low-band 5G will only increase spectrum efficiency around 20%. For now, carriers are throttling videos and introducing various deprioritization options. All the major carriers only offer plans with forced traffic deprioritization. For some plans, all traffic is deprioritized. For others, deprioritization happens after a threshold. There isn't enough bandwidth in the US to support 240 million subscribers streaming Netflix 24/7.

preinheimer 7y ago
Sure, congestion is a thing, but: - I feel like there should be some oversight or required transparency about how and when they're applying throttling. Can they throttle customers in under served markets all the time to save money? - They're currently throttling sites not protocols or users. Why? Did some sites pay them off? If they need to throttle they should be applying that process equally among sites. "But AT&T didn't slow Amazon.com's Prime Video at all" - I would be curious to see where bandwidth problems play out in terms of "carrier could build more towers, but hasn't" and "we've reached the actual peak of what's possible with current technology.
rhino369 7y ago
And 720p or even 480p looks pretty fine on small ass screen. I left Tmo's throttling on so I wouldn't blow through my 6gb too quickly.
dehrmann 7y ago
> I really, really hate to defend mobile carriers, but... For the most part, carriers sell unlimited, then throttle heavy users. While it's not honest, they're also not upselling those users on super unlimited plans. This makes me think carriers genuinely don't have the capacity for all this video. Without an upsell path, if they had the bandwidth, there'd by no incentive to throttle.

by QUFB 7y ago

preinheimer 7y ago

Sure, congestion is a thing, but: - I feel like there should be some oversight or required transparency about how and when they're applying throttling. Can they throttle customers in under served markets all the time to save money? - They're currently throttling sites not protocols or users. Why? Did some sites pay them off? If they need to throttle they should be applying that process equally among sites. "But AT&T didn't slow Amazon.com's Prime Video at all" - I would be curious to see where bandwidth problems play out in terms of "carrier could build more towers, but hasn't" and "we've reached the actual peak of what's possible with current technology.

rhino369 7y ago

And 720p or even 480p looks pretty fine on small ass screen. I left Tmo's throttling on so I wouldn't blow through my 6gb too quickly.

dehrmann 7y ago

> I really, really hate to defend mobile carriers, but... For the most part, carriers sell unlimited, then throttle heavy users. While it's not honest, they're also not upselling those users on super unlimited plans. This makes me think carriers genuinely don't have the capacity for all this video. Without an upsell path, if they had the bandwidth, there'd by no incentive to throttle.