Verizon Policy Statement on Net Neutrality

Fri Feb 27 19:22:10 UTC 2015

BIll,

I have to take exception to your example.

"All utilities work by oversubscription: electric, natural gas, water
and sewer. When the sewer authority fouls up their oversubscription
model and your pee ends up in my basement, guess who pays for the
cleanup? They do."

Water, gas, and to a great extent electrical systems do not work on
oversubscription, ie their aggregate capacity meets or exceeds the needs of
all their customers peak potential demand, at least from "normal" demand
standpoint.  If someone decides to go to every house in an area served by a
water tower and turns on all the faucets at the same time, that's malicious
behavior and will exceed the pressure the tower can provide, but I think
we'd all(?) agree that's malicious behavior and not customer demand.  The
only one of those that really works that way is electrical power and even
then it's not usually a matter of the lack of transmission, but a lack of
generation during hot periods.

Further, I don't believe that you can get the power company/water/gas
company to pay for a failure to meet a capacity demand.

Your example of the sewer system is also very dependent on circumstances.

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/21432309/sewage-spill-coon-rapids-homeowners-stuck-with-bill-after-backup

http://www.horizonservicesinc.com/reference/tips-articles/sewer-backup-causes-prevention-coverag

The most common point of contention is the lateral, which is almost always
the home/business owner's responsibility

http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/sweatequity/article/Replacing-sewer-lateral-pricey-either-way-you-go-5328940.php

A much more apt comparison for over subscription is of the course normal
POTS service, but again I am not aware of any recompense you can get from
your phone company if you get an "All circuits are busy message", though
you can of course complain to the FCC.

Scott Helms
Vice President of Technology
ZCorum
(678) 507-5000
--------------------------------
http://twitter.com/kscotthelms
--------------------------------

On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 1:54 PM, William Herrin <bill at herrin.us> wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 1:34 PM, Mel Beckman <mel at beckman.org> wrote:
> > On Feb 27, 2015, at 9:56 AM, William Herrin <bill at herrin.us>
> >  wrote:
> >> Deceit is Bad Behavior. If you sell me an X megabit per second
> >> Internet access service, you should do everything reasonably within
> >> your power to make sure I can access the Internet sites of my choice
> >> at X megabits per second.
>
> > This is not feasible. ISPs work by oversubscription, so it's never
> possible
> > for all (or even 10% of all) customers to simultaneously demand their
> full
> > bandwidth. If ISPs had to reserve the full bandwidth sold to each
> customer
>
> Hi Mel,
>
> Respectfully, that's a straw man argument. You alter the parameters of
> my criticism then proceed to show how the altered argument is
> unreasonable.
>
> All utilities work by oversubscription: electric, natural gas, water
> and sewer. When the sewer authority fouls up their oversubscription
> model and your pee ends up in my basement, guess who pays for the
> cleanup? They do.
>
> I have some unfortunate first-hand experience with this.
>
>
> > Anyone who doesn't understand [oversubscription]
> > will be unable to engage in reasonable discussion about ISP practices.
>
> You said it, not me.
>
> Regards,
> Bill Herrin
>
>
>
> --
> William Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
> Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>
>