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Bandwidth Caps out; Is Throttling next?

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After the recent public hearing by the NTC, they’ve announced that provisions for bandwidth caps have been removed from memo. But that’s just the NTC and it’s still a draft so ISPs can still continue with their bandwidth capping provisions as stated in their service contracts and AUP.

If bandwidth capping will eventually be prohibited by NTC, service providers will most likely resort to other methods and the next best thing would be “bandwidth throttling”.

Bandwidth throttling is a technique employed in communications networks to manage network traffic and minimize congestion.

Internet service provider can use bandwidth throttling to reduce the impact of specific services or applications, such as the BitTorrent protocol, and could also potentially use it to provide preferential bandwidth access to higher priority users at peak times. {via Wikipedia}

Incidentally, I’ve been used to bandwidth throttling numerous times in the past while in other countries (especially in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan). My connection speeds in those countries are usually very fast (up to 100Mbps) but when I’m downloading files via bittorent, the speeds significantly slows down.

Last time I remember, I can stream a 1080p YouTube HD without any problems but my torrent speed drops to just 10Kbps or less after a few minutes (happened in 3 different hotels while I was in Japan).


Copy of Innove’s Service Contract

Unlike bandwidth capping, bandwidth throttling still gives customers that “unlimited bandwidth” provision but makes hogging the network a little harder to do. It can also be selective — direct downloads, streaming and the likes would enjoy full speeds but torrents might suffer reduced speeds (Globe’s Service Contracts specifies only 20% of subscribed speed will be allocated to P2P applications).

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Written by
Abe Olandres

Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

View all posts by Abe Olandres →

182 Comments

MA
madmaxx · 15 years ago

sound like mag”boboom” nanaman ang mga pirated dvd.

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KE
Kevin · 15 years ago

I am subscribed for almost two years in Globe wired 1mbps and our place is between caloocan and novaliches.

So far, I don’t have any bad experience with their service. I get what I pay for. :)

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GE
Gerald · 15 years ago

Why are they talking about throttling and capping when the ISPs are already doing both with their very poorly managed infrastructure?

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FR
Francis · 15 years ago

QQ more pirates
The internet owns your soul

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MA
MangaSteam · 15 years ago

ALL OF THIS IS A BULLSHIT! Those company sucks!

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TE
Terry G. · 15 years ago

Seriously, just purchase a lifetime Megaupload account (or for some rich kids, Hotfile). At least port 80 doesn’t get throttled to bits like P2P.

Buy from a reseller, you’ll save a lot.

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OG
ogago · 15 years ago

i dont know if its just me but in our place (laguna with pldt), i can download @ 150kbps while seeding @ >50kbps – torrent, i can stream hd videos, online gaming is good, but plain browsing sucks! i even have to refresh it several times for the entire website to be properly displayed. while when im in cavite, with planet cable, its the other way around. dont know what the F is wrong but pldt’s service used to be great as in no problem whatsoever. im so effin disappointed!

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PI
PinoyDROID.Net · 15 years ago

I am okay with throttling especially with p2p services. This kind of services cripples the network, imagine let say 60,000 subscriber will p2p at the same time it is really huge. The packets are going crazy.

I am still hoping that streaming will not be included in the throttling even though it is actually included…LOL…even before the memo…NTC is doing nothing…

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MI
Miklos · 15 years ago

There are ways around the limits so this only hurts the average bittorrent user or MMO player (Blizzard uses bittorrent for patches/expansions etc.).

Get a good foreign VPN and you will never suffer these things.

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BE
BeerBoy · 15 years ago

AS USUAL… PIECES OF SH*T NEWS AGAIN THAT HURTS CONSUMERS.

How the hell can someone abuse a service that is deemed UNLIMITED?! (and so we go to the fact that what they advertise is false, WTF is wrong with them?!)

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CA
Cake · 15 years ago

@Fleeb
ISPs will resist removing the word “unlimited” because this is what draws subscribers in; it is meant to be misleading. That’s how unscrupulous they are.

Either way, when a connection is active 24/7, it is not an abuse to use it 24/7. They market it as such, so as such is how it will be used.

Again, the issue here is not about heavy users. There is no such thing. Everyone is already limited by the maximum speed their connection can achieve. The problem is that ISPs took in far too many subscribers than their networks can properly support. This is the reason why 2% of their subscriber base that maximizes the use of their paid connections bog down the network.

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DI
DigitalBinary · 15 years ago

@angelo sometimes the download speed depends upon the number of seeds of the torrent you’re downloading

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NI
Night · 15 years ago

I semi-agree with throttling kung peak hours siguro nila i-implement. Like 7-10pm or kung ano man oras peak hours nila then for the rest of the day wala na dapat.

I think this is a fair solution dahil peak hours madami gumagamit unfair din naman sa iba na naka torrent tayo tapos mabagal gamit ng iba. Pero kung madaling araw na at ikaw na lang gumagamit, you should be able to use the subscribed speed na.

I also agree that they should upgrade their infrastructures first before demanding from their consumers. Kung tutuusin nag titiis na nga lang tayo sa slow speeds nila tapos lalagyan pa ng cap. Ano pang matitira?

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OC
ocommon · 15 years ago

Mag-upgrade na kasi ng infrastructure ang mga BWISIT na ISP na yan kaysa kung ano-ano pa iniisip nila para kumita ng malaki tsk..tsk..

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KI
kize21 · 15 years ago

afaik, bayantel limits the speed of p2p already… which means they’re already throttling. but they lift it up after peak hours, i think. been a bayantel user for more than two years… and been very satisfied until recently… after the capping issues.. parang bumagal na sa location namin ang bayantel… and minsan unstable ang speed… :( sana bumalik na ang dati nilang service…

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MA
MangaSteam · 15 years ago

@Fleeb
Don’t act you know enough. Kung mayaman ka, ikaw na! Our point here and what we are concern about is the poor quality service that this ISP gives us. Yes it is a business matter but yet consumers are the one who suffer from this shit.

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FL
Fleeb · 15 years ago

As much as it is misleading, the notion of “unlimited” had been historically about the availability of the service 24/7. It used to be “limited” to a number of hours a month. Thus, it is not limited in that regard.

However, as it stands now, we tie this word to the bandwidth being limited and it sounds confusing indeed. ISPs should remove the word “unlimited” from their advertising and marketing materials because it leads to confusion as well as frustration over the subscriber contracts which qualify in legalese to which the terminology applies.

Again, as for home use, as long as you do not illegally download movies or software 24/7 (something which one cannot use to justify the removal of bandwidth caps), you will not feel the effect of your connection bandwidth capped. If the there is a justifiable need to lose that cap, then propose them. (Personally, no matter how I think, I still can’t give one justification to undo the caps. Maybe there are those of you who really have legitimate need for it.) Ah wait… I have one. I have a Steam account but then again, I only buy a game or two a month, so I have no problems with the bandwidth limitations as of yet. I just realized that this is one applicable scenario: once centralized repositories of software distribution (Linux repositories, Apple App Store, Steam, Impulse) via the cloud becomes the norm, then there is a need to increase the cap.

Having said that, I agree with some of the commentators that beyond the capping and throttling issues, there is still a need to upgrade infrastructure and that net neutrality should be respected.

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MA
Manuel · 15 years ago

Throttling ONLY torrent sites is okay for me. But please. ISPs in the Philippines should upgrade their internet speed and value, as well as the quality of their services >.>

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EM
Emtech Miranda · 15 years ago

Sir Yugatech , available po ba sa bandwidth caps yung witribe.. , hirap po kasi ako sa monthly limit na 6GB

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JT
jtroyve · 15 years ago

to those people who keep on saying some of us are abusing our internet, please explain what “unlimited” means?

ISPs should first change their marketing/sales/whatever before you say we abuse anything.

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WI
WILDER · 15 years ago

off-topic:

@ tincan, it’s a matter of preference. i was able to get very good copies of concert and classic movie dvds (with correct english subtitles) in quiapo and some from my “suki” vendors in laguna. peace!

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CA
Cake · 15 years ago

@kjalcordo

Again, abusive users is a myth. Congestion is very real though but no manner of bandwidth throttling or shaping will help; ISP *must* upgrade capacity and infrastructure.

I was very vocal about bandwidth caps but I can agree to throttling as long as it follows net neutrality and applies to every single user on the entirety of the network.

What I don’t want to see is, knowing our ISPs’ very apparent greed, the very large possibility of using throttling for a different sort of tiered pricing to charge subscribers. For example, you have your regular 1Mbps connection for P1000, and then you have your special P2000 1Mbps connection that is exempt from throttling.

So while the concept is sound, the implementation could be twisted and skewed against the subscribers which this measure is supposed to serve.

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GA
gabs · 15 years ago

Definitely sucks.

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SO
sonofa · 15 years ago

unlimited nga nakasulat sa ads pero kailangan mo naman pirnahan you understand amd agree to the contract that states… “hindi kami unlimited mga ulul!”

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BA
batang dial-up · 15 years ago

Question: does this mean na wala ng cap yung sa globe na 800mb?

Please help po mga guru

regards,
batang Dial-Up

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BA
batang dial-up · 15 years ago

Question po, wala na po ba yung cap sa globe na 800mb per day?
paki sagot po naman sa may info kung natanggal na din ito
kasi gumagamit kami nung supersurf nila
baka kasi maputol ulet.

Please help po mga guru

regards,
batang dial-up

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TI
tincan · 15 years ago

@Nats hinde daw maganda quality mga nabibili sa quiapo eh. at bakit ka naman gagastos para sa illigal copy kung pwede ka naman kumuha na copy na di ka gagastos

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RO
Robin · 15 years ago

“Our ISPs don’t need throttling anymore, their quality of service already takes care of that.”

rotfl

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WI
WILDER · 15 years ago
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FL
Fleeb · 15 years ago

@sdfasdf: These are businesses. They are out there to make money, not take a loss and give to charity. The only ways that they will improve on their services, infrastructure, or pricing schemes are: 1) competition, 2) government regulation / nationalization of comm lines. Pareto principle dictates that they will take heavier losses if they prioritize home subs over corporate subs. Besides the telecoms are publicly traded companies. Their investors include the public who bought shares. If you invested in those companies, you don’t want that company losing money, would you? You’d rather let them earn, right? If so, would you call yourself greedy? (Of course, that is not excusing poor customer service among other things.)

@Nats: exactly. See my “justification” argument.

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NA
Nats · 15 years ago

Ok lng un throttling,para mabawasan ung mga abusadong tao mapagsamantala..kung magDDL lng kau ng movie,pwede naman kau bumili ng dvd sa quiapo..tapos magrereklamo kau pag mabagal DL nio..kamote naman talga..bkit ang mga taong nasanay sa illegal,pag sinita sila pa ang galit..aysus..gumastos naman kau ng konti..puro kau reklamo..wag kau magpakabit ng internet kung puro kau reklamo..para di na congested..wahaha

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SD
sdfasdf · 15 years ago

Bottom line is, those ISPs are greedy, and wants to squeeze alot out of their crappy infrastructure.

parang sinusulit nila yung investment nila, kaya maski na sobrang sablay na nung services nila, wala silang pakialam, basta ang mahalaga sa kanila ay nasa-satisfy nila yung mga greedy investors nila.

ayaw nilang basta-basta mag-upgrade kasi, nga nman mahirap bawiin, so, magtiis nalang ang mga pinoy sa walang kwentang internet sa Pilipinas!

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FL
Fleeb · 15 years ago

Just as I said before, the only people that will be really affected by throttling are those using BT protocol for transferring legit files or something as part of what they do. Please do not use downloading or illegally distributing files as a justification. It never is and never will be. If we need the government or the telecoms to act on it, please justify the need in other ways. (I remember back in the days we are paying PHP 2k for a speed of 10 kbytes/s thus I am not exactly complaining with what we have now.)

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PA
paul0289 · 15 years ago

The main problem here are the ISPs themselves because they offer poor service to their customers who pay properly. Having a proper internet connection in the Philippines is just an eternal dream and it’ll never happen until ISPs take appropriate actions.

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GO
Gomer Magtibay · 15 years ago

Just like choosing the lesser evil?

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AD
adsl · 15 years ago

Wag na kasi kayong magtorrent ng files na di naman dapat itorrent. Buy legal. (Most of the time here in PH, torrents are for downloading illegal copies of software, movies, etc)

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MA
MangaSteam · 15 years ago

Capping and now throttling. I hate to say this but this really makes the PH left behind as a crap compare to other countries.

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KE
Kenzo · 15 years ago

mas ok naman siguro ito compare dun sa capping.

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AL
Alexei Rivera · 15 years ago

What I hate about these proceedings is not that they’re trying to control our use of the internet, but that they charge so much yet give us so little.

A $50 internet subscription in the US will easily, easily, give you more than 10MBits with zero hassle.

I pay PHP1995 for PLDT and I get, if I’m lucky, 2MBit, with possible throttling and caps? I should be paying 1/5 the price for that speed.

Capping or throttling or not, our speeds are still massively sub par and our costs are exorbitant. There should be no reason for this sort of control over such measly provisions.

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FA
Faust · 15 years ago

well, bandwidth throttling is not bad at all, but how about some users, or hosters, that host legit files via torrent should it be throttled too?

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ED
Edward · 15 years ago

Then how are we supposed to download LARGE stuff?

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MA
Madz · 15 years ago

Di na maka DL ng pirated Movies,Apps and Games >.>
bibili nlng ako ng pirated sa mga tindahan… :P

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JH
Jhay · 15 years ago

Instead of hearings, per se, the NTC should just call for a conference/workshop of stakeholders in this issue. That way, everyone will sit as peers on the table and hammer out a deal or policy that is a win-win for everyone.

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OP
Operation Super · 15 years ago

+1 for brownspank.

I noticed throttling on my connection last year when downloading thru torrents. While not downloading, overall browsing speed was fast. But once I ran the client, download would peak at 100+kbps and then degrades to almost 10kbps. Browsing became abysmal also, it was really slow. I investigated and the torrent download seemed to be the culprit.

And since then, I got premium accounts on some of the popular file hosting sites which are really fast and resumes downloads.

Bring on the p2p throttling. Lol

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KI
Kiko · 15 years ago

until the various isp’s remove the word “unlimited” from their campaign ads, there is no such thing as network abuse by the customers.

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AN
angelo · 15 years ago

I think this is what Sun Broadband is implementing. It’s 2mbps on speedtest but you only get 10kbps on bittorrent

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JO
Jon · 15 years ago

LOL @brownspank. I really agree. Lately, my ISP is really crap. I cannot even view a webpage properly without hitting the refresh button.

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KJ
kjalcordo · 15 years ago

Pinoys who are against throttling or caps are dreaming. There needs to be a way to prevent network abuse and congestion or Filipino Internet will remain the way it is..

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ER
Erik · 15 years ago

mga gahaman

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BR
Brownspank · 15 years ago

Our ISPs don’t need throttling anymore, their quality of service already takes care of that. :)

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