There has been a lot of talk about the biggest con our Internet providers have been getting away with – its SPEED.
Complaints have been pouring into the appropriate regulating authority that watches over our Internet – Information Communications and Technology Authority (ICTA), and over all the local media websites and even it has sparked the interest of some of our MLAs.
Some persons have complained they have paid for 10MB and getting only 1MB in peak times of the day.
Where I live in Newlands the Internet is often so slow it takes five minutes to load just one page of text. And don’t even try to watch a movie at any time using the Internet. Even at its best it stops and stutters making it impossible to view.
However, ICTA Managing Director, Alee Fa’amoe, has indicated the times are a’changing.
As reported in an article published by the Cayman Compass he said, “The current thinking is that, as a rule of thumb, any broadband service which falls below 80 percent of what the provider has contracted with the customer to provide is grounds for a complaint to the licensee and the ICTA, possibly followed up with an investigation, depending on what steps are taken by the provider to fix the problem.”
He also said licensees that did not comply could face fines or imprisonment.
We shall see.
I cannot see the need to “bring in an overseas company to measure broadband connectivity around the island” as the article goes on to say. Surely we have the necessity expertise here?
And it is not only here.
In an article published by the UK Daily Mail in June 2015 it reported:
Major providers, including AT&T, Time Warner and Verizon, are all slowing users, many slowing to the speed of a dial up connection at times – despite recent net neutrality rulings which outlaw such practices.
Researchers analysed online tests taken by 300,00 people in major cities.
They says the evidence collected points to slowdowns for users on the networks of five of the largest Internet access providers — AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon — which represent 75 percent of all U.S. wireline households
‘For too long, internet access providers and their lobbyists have characterized net neutrality protections as a solution in search of a problem,’ said Tim Karr of Free Press, one of the groups that makes up BattlefortheNet organisation that created the test.
‘Data compiled using the Internet Health Test show us otherwise – that there is widespread and systemic abuse across the network.
‘The irony is that this trove of evidence is becoming public just as many in Congress are trying to strip away the open internet protections that would prevent such bad behavior.’
He called for the FCC to take action.
‘In truth, the big phone and cable companies are terrified that so many people are performing the speed tests and compiling data on what ails the Internet.,’ he said.
Does that make you feel any better?
No. But it shows how the Internet providers keep one hand in the cookie jar. What the other hand is doing is being laughed into.
