GCI moves to end unlimited Internet usage plans

http://www.adn.com/...ited-internet.html (www.adn.com)

I hold no love for GCI, on a personal or professional level. They are, however, the most reasonably priced high-end, low-latency residential Internet service in Anchorage. As their customers know well, their bundling is cruel. Previously, in order to get unlimited bandwidth (such that the company can't charge you if you end up downloading large quantities over a given time period), you have to pay at least $150 a month, and be forced to buy cable TV service and a phone line on top of your Internet service. I believe GCI's previously unlimited plan started at 6Mb/sec (laughable in the lower 48).

According to this article, GCI is now moving to "limited only" service plans. This means that no matter which plan you have, or how much you are paying, or paying for, you will have an upper limit to the amount of data you can transfer before you start paying overages. This means that, depending on your plan, if you end up transferring (note that "transfer" includes both upload and download, as well as all networking overhead requisite to the TCP/IP protocol), if you exceed your 50GB or 125GB, GCI will start charging you extra. As a consolation, GCI is also "upgrading Internet speed for its customers this year at no extra cost."

This is not great. This is bad. And will not solve the problem GCI is trying to solve (the saturation of their network as a result of a handful of users). Here's a few reasons why:

• Cable modems, up until they get onto GCI's network, are not "switched." If you've had a cable modem in an apartment complex or a neighborhood, you'll notice that your traffic conflicts directly with your neighbors, because all cable modems on the same "junction" all transmit on effectively the same wire. The reason it isn't immediately apparent that you're fighting with other customers is that coax cables have the ability to transmit at extremely high rates (Gigabits per second, if I recall). For example, non-digital cable used to transmit all standard-definition channels at all times. So, theoretically, the only way to directly affect another customer is to be on the same cable circuit as them (ie, be in a geographically similar place).
• The only way one customer can indirectly affect another customer is once traffic gets off of GCI's cable modem circuits and on to their network proper. Once their, the traffic is routed through devices called switches. These switches are designed to be able to pass the maximum amounts of traffic between each of its ports simultaneously. For instance, a Gigabit switch with 20 ports should be able to handle 20Gigabits of traffic passing through the device at any one time. These devices are pretty awesome, unless you're having 19 of the 20 ports trying to access the last port. In that situation, you have 1 Gigabit / 20 throughput. This is an example of network saturation, such that the network infrastructure (not the limitations of each transmitting device) cannot support the traffic. This is possible at every ISP, because ISPs constantly oversell their services betting that all users will not be using their service at all times, and that customers expect to not get what they pay for.
• The quantity of bits one can download is proportional to the speed at which you can transfer bits. The faster your rate of transfer, the more quickly you can transfer bits. This is obvious.

GCI's imposition of a required bandwidth cap in response to perceived harm to customers is silly. Even more silly is to impose a bandwidth cap, and to then increase customer speeds so that customers can chew through their alotted bandwidth even more quickly. If they indeed have the ability to tell which of their customers are using the most bandwidth, then they should have the ability to tell what the people are doing.

I think that this is an example of GCI failing to recognize a change in network usage trends. More customers, and more frequently, are streaming high definition movies from services like Netflix and Hulu, or at the very least, consuming more bandwidth than their previously assumed models of "people check email, do a few web searches, and log off." Video and music streaming are now the norm, and GCI has more than likely horribly oversold their network, and they are unable, either by way of policy, or by way of their technology, that they cannot limit certain customers and the services they are accessing.

This is probably the best case against network neutrality I've seen.

What you should take away if you don't read this:

A one-to-two hour high definition movie / show from Netflix or Hulu ranges from 4-8GB. The Netflix and Hulu streaming clients have functionality that detects your maximum download rate and adjusts the quality of your stream accordingly. The streaming clients try to maximize your bandwidth to get the best picture quality. Last I checked, the streaming clients don't have functionality to limit video quality, so you will always be transferring at full speed.

So, if you're switched over to these plans, and you do a lot of streaming, be careful to monitor your usage.