symmetric vs. asymmetric [was: Verizon Policy Statement on Net Neutrality]

Mon Mar 2 16:28:08 UTC 2015

On 02/28/2015 05:46 PM, Mark Andrews wrote:
> Home users should be able to upload a content in the same amount
> of time it takes to download content.
This.

Once a week I upload a 100MB+ MP3 (that I produced myself, and for which 
I own the copyright) to a cloud server.  I have a reasonable ADSL 
circuit at home, but it takes quite a bit of my time to upload that one 
file.  Even if the average BW was throttled to 512k, it would be really 
nice to have 7Mb/s up for just a minute or ten so I can shut the machine 
down and go to bed.  Cloud services are becoming the choice for all 
kinds of content distribution, and there are more content creators out 
there than you might think who need to do exactly what I need to do.

Yes, I do remember the days of dialup, in particular I remember the 
quite interesting business model of free.org, which dramatically reduced 
my long distance bill that I had been paying to dial up Eskimo North 
(I'm in the Southeast US, incidentally).  And then we got dialup 
locally, and my old Okidata 9600 modem got a workout.

And, well, I still use my connection in much the same way as I used 
dialup, turning it off when I'm not using it.  I almost never leave it 
up all night; if my router isn't online it can't be used for malicious 
purposes, etc.  And, no, I have no alternatives to the ILEC's DSL here, 
as 3G/4G cell service simply doesn't get to my house (now on the ridge 
behind my house, great 4G bandwidth, but I'm down in a valley, and the 
shadowing algorithm's show the story; I ran a Splat simulation from the 
cell tower site; across the creek from my house is the edge of one of 
the diffraction zones where good service can be found, and my house is 
in a deep null....)

Thanks all for the interesting symmetry discussion; this has been enjoyable.