Some truth about Comcast - WikiLeaks style

Tue Dec 14 06:45:22 UTC 2010

On Mon, 13 Dec 2010, Backdoor Santa wrote:

> Another thing to notice is the ratio of inbound versus outbound. Since 
> Comcast is primarily a broadband access network provider, they're going 
> to have millions of eyeballs (users) downloading content.

Actually, there are plenty of access providers with 2:1 ratio (more ul 
than dl). It's not a matter if you're access provider or not, it's a 
matter if you offer decent upstream speed or not.

In my experience, someone with 10/10 megabit/s ETTH compared to someone 
with 24/1 ADSL will download the same amount of data on average, but the 
10/10 will have four (4) times more upload usage, bringing the ratio from 
2:1 (Dl:Ul) on ADSL to 1:2 (Dl:Ul) on ETTH.

So because Comcast is offering low upload speeds, they'll have low 
outgoing amount of traffic compared to incoming. With more and more ISPs 
offering more symmetric dl/ul speeds, we'll approach 1:1 ratio more and 
more...

-- 
Mikael Abrahamsson    email: swmike at swm.pp.se