Verizon Policy Statement on Net Neutrality

Fri Feb 27 18:04:59 UTC 2015

Naslund, Steve wrote:
> That statement completely confuses me.  Why is asymmetry evil?  Does that not reflect what "Joe Average User" actually needs and wants? The statement that the average users *MUST* have the same pipes going UP as he does going DOWN does not reflect reality at all.  Do a lot of your users want to stream 4K video to their friends UHD TV?  Given that all transmission media has some sort of bandwidth limit it would seem to me that asymmetry is actually more fair for the user since he gets more of what he needs which is download speed.  There is no technical reason that it can't be symmetric it is just a reflection of what the market wants.  As an ISP I can tell you that a lot more people complaint about their download speeds than their upload speeds.  Do you think that you (or the average home user) would be happier with 27.5 down and 27.5 up vs your 50 down and 5 up you have today?  Don't tell me you want 50 down and 50 up because that is a different bandwidth total that requires a faster transmission media.
>
> Do you actually believe that average users are suffering with a 5 mbps upstream?  I don't. I just don't see the average user "freely interchanging ideas" at more than 5 mbps.  I don't feel like "Big Brother" forced me to watch Netflix and my next door neighbor just doesn't provide a lot of engaging HD content that I just must see.

 From a user point of view, it's not so much asymmetry as it is low peak 
upload speeds, which hurt you for things like:
- network backup
- video conferencing (NOT an argument for symmetry, though - your only 
sending your stream, you're receiving multiple streams)
- uploading large files (5 minutes to upload the latest version of a 
report to the office, sending a large photo album or video of an event, 
particularly annoying, I expect to folks who shoot a lot of video

Having said all that, has anyone else noticed that Verizon has been 
pushing symmetric bandwidth in their new FIOS plans?  Not sure how well 
it's working though - a lot of the early deployment is BPON, which tops 
out at 155Mbps for uploads - theoretically, I have 25/25 service, but 
I've occasionally seen my uploads fall to 100kbps (yes that's a k).  
Highly intermittent though - Verizon's techs have been having lots of 
fun trying to track things down.

Miles Fidelman

-- 
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra