Level 3 blames Internet slowdowns on ISPs' refusal to upgrade networks | Ars Technica

Sun Mar 23 15:06:12 UTC 2014

This is exactly my point. If a subscriber can use the service for 30 
consecutive days and never achieve the "8Mbps" because the network is 
incapable by design, or by virtue of its over subscription is 
statistically impossible of delivering it, then I believe this is false 
advertising. I, and most others, accept that when a service is marketed 
as "up to", the service may not always deliver the "up to" number. But 
if the service is marketed as "up to" any number, then the service 
should at least be capable of delivering that advertised number some 
reasonable fraction of the time; Never is not a reasonable fraction of 
the time.

--Blake

Blake Dunlap wrote the following on 3/22/2014 2:59 PM:
> I see this argument, and then I remember working for a company that happily
> sold 6 and 12 meg dsl from a dslam that was backhauled by a 3mb pair of t1s.
>
> There needs to be some oversight that it is at least possible / likely to
> reach a reasonable expectation of normal destinations with the service
> limits you were sold.
>
> -Blake
> On Mar 22, 2014 12:17 PM, "Keith Medcalf" <kmedcalf at dessus.com> wrote:
>
>>> I don't see this as a technical problem, but one of business and ethics.
>>> ISP X advertises/sells customers "up to 8Mbps" (as an example), but when
>>> it comes to delivering that product, they've only guaranteed 512Kbps (if
>>> any) because the ISP hasn't put in the infrastructure to support 8Mbps
>>> per customer. Customer believes he/she has 8Mbps, Content provider says
>>> we provide 8Mbps content, but ISP can (theoretically and in practice)
>>> only deliver a fraction of that. That feels like false advertising to me.
>> The problem is that the consumer is too stupid to own a computer and use a
>> network.
>>
>> The consumer purchased a product advertized as "up to 8Mbps" but really
>> wanted "not less than 8Mbps".
>>
>> It is not false advertizing.  What was delivered is exactly what was
>> advertized and exactly what was purchased.
>>
>>
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