Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously?

Sat Jan 6 06:52:20 UTC 2007

If this application takes off, I have to presume that everyone's 
baseline network usage metrics can be tossed out the window...

Thomas

From: David Farber <dave at farber.net>
Subject: Using Venice Project? Better get yourself a non-capping ISP...
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2007 11:11:46 -0500

Begin forwarded message:

From: "D.H. van der Woude" <dirkvanderwoude at gmail.com>
Date: January 5, 2007 11:06:31 AM EST
To: dave at farber.net
Subject: Using Venice Project? Better get yourself a non-capping ISP...

I am one of Venice' beta testers. Works like a charm,
admittedly with a 20/1 Mbs ADSL2+ connection and
a unlimited use ISP.

Even at sub-DVD quality the data use is staggering...

Venice Project would break many users' ISP conditions
http://www.out-law.com/page-7604
OUT-LAW News, 03/01/2007

Internet television system The Venice Project could break users' 
monthly internet bandwith limits in hours, according to the team 
behind it.

It downloads 320 megabytes (MB) per hour from users' computers, 
meaning that users could reach their monthly download limits in hours 
and that it could be unusable for bandwidth-capped users.

The Venice Project is the new system being developed by Janus Friis 
and Niklas Zennström, the Scandinavian entrepreneurs behind the 
revolutionary services Kazaa and Skype. It is currently being used by 
6,000 beta testers and is due to be launched next year.

The data transfer rate is revealed in the documentation sent to beta 
testers and the instructions make it very clear what the bandwidth 
requirements are so that users are not caught out.

Under a banner saying 'Important notice for users with limits on 
their internet usage', the document says: "The Venice Project is a 
streaming video application, and so uses a relatively high amount of 
bandwidth per hour. One hour of viewing is 320MB downloaded and 105 
Megabytes uploaded, which means that it will exhaust a 1 Gigabyte cap 
in 10 hours. Also, the application continues to run in the background 
after you close the main window."

"For this reason, if you pay for your bandwidth usage per megabyte or 
have your usage capped by your ISP, you should be careful to always 
exit the Venice Project client completely when you are finished 
watching it," says the document

Many ISPs offer broadband connections which are unlimited to use by 
time, but have limits on the amount of data that can be transferred 
over the connection each month. Though limits are 'advisory' and not 
strict, users who regularly far exceed the limits break the terms of 
their deals.

BT's most basic broadband package BT Total Broadband Package 1, for 
example, has a 2GB monthly 'usage guideline'. This would be reached 
after 20 hours of viewing.

The software is also likely to transfer data even when not being 
used. The Venice system is going to run on a peer-to-peer (P2P) 
network, which means that users host and send the programmes to other 
users in an automated system.

OUT-LAW has seen screenshots from the system and talked to one of the 
testers of it, who reports very favourably on its use. "This is going 
to be the one. I've used some of the other software out there and 
it's fine, but my dad could use this, they've just got it right," he 
said. "It looks great, you fire it up and in two minutes you're live, 
you're watching television."

The source said that claims being made for the system being "near 
high definition" in terms of picture quality are wide of the mark. 
"It's not high definition. It's the same as normal television," he said.

-- "Private where private belongs, public where it's needed, and an 
admission that circumstances alter cases." Robert A. Heinlein, 1969

-- 
Thomas Leavitt - thomas at thomasleavitt.org - 831-295-3917 (cell)

*** Independent Systems and Network Consultant, Santa Cruz, CA ***

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