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

Tue Mar 3 14:46:51 UTC 2015

On 3/2/2015 11:14 PM, Mark Andrews wrote:
> If the network supported it this would be typical of a household with 
> teenagers. People adapt their usage to the constraints presented. That 
> doesn't mean they are necessarially happy with the constraints. Don't 
> take lack of complaints as indicating people don't want things 
> improved. As speed increases the importance of more speed decreases. 
> We get to the point where thing happen fast enough. We also start to 
> be limited by things other than link speed. Mark 

This. I'm moving considerably out into the country. Discussions about 
the uncertainty of what we'll be doing for broadband has given me a good 
insight to my son's expectations.

At a minimum he needs the ability for his phone or computer to be able 
to send messages to his friends; and raise your hand if you believe 
he'll actually settle for that long term.

However, this is not what he wants. He'd like to stream video/video 
skype more on his phone, but he has to make sure to stay under the 
plan's data limit. He'd like to host more gaming servers at the house 
(though he guesses he can settle for the DC based VPS server, but it's 
limited on supported games). He'd like to stream his games to twitch. 
He'd like to collaborate with others on his music. He'd like to mine 
crypto-currency (nothing to do with upload, but I'm not paying for it).

As he's gotten older, he's wanted to do a lot more things. He is 
settling for what the bandwidth will allow him to do. He is finding ways 
around the limitations, but that does not mean he doesn't want more. I'd 
like to say that my son is special (He is! I'm his dad!), but in 
relation to this discussion he's an average teenager.

Time moves on. We may not need symmetric bandwidth, but we definitely 
need much higher upload capacity and, if possible, we should consider 
how to make things more dynamic as we move forward. Software developers 
push what the majority can support. When there's enough people able to 
handle HD, they pump HD. When there is enough upload capacity, they'll 
develop more apps that utilize it. And if they can get away with 
developing p2p streaming to save their own costs on bandwidth, they WILL 
do it. After all, in the end, it's still about the money.

Jack