For those who don't know what it is net neutrality is where there is no restriction of providers or restrict content. That what is it in it's basic form if you want a better explanation go to the wiki page. You can fully understand companies charging customers more for a faster connection speed, it makes sense. But Virgin are trying a contraversal method where they are going to limit the providers themselves. Lets say for a current example in an article where the CEO of Virgin Media said - What this means if BBC don't pay money to Virgin they will make the service slower for all Virgin Media customers. What BBC iPlayer is, is a on demand service where you can watch the past 7 days programmes online. So streaming the content takes up alot of bandwidth. And this is probably the reason for it, so save bandwidth. But that won't be the only site. Sites like youtube, veoh, probably even Gametrailers and gamespot, sites which have high bandwidths will also be affected. Do you want a slower loading site and even slower streaming times? So far it will only effect those Virgin Media customers in the UK, but it may also spread to other internet providers and maybe overseas to the likes of the US. But don't worry not all the companies have the same opinion For more information go to this site - http://stopvirgin.movielol.org/ Yes bandwidth is an issue in recent years, with more demanding sites like BBC iPlayer, youtube and torrents. But is Virgin's method the right way to go about it? I personally perfer BT's methods of educating.
Lol I think he thought of the literal meaning of Virgin xD But yeah, we are Virgin customers and I was pretty peeved when we lost Sky One >: On Topic (;D) : I don't think this is exactly fair on the customer. I mean, why should you lose useability just because, for example, the BBC (which is funded through TV licences, which would probably go up if this had to be paid for >_>) refused to pay? I'm sure the Competition Commision and the Office of Fair Trading would have something to say about it. It's bound to go against some form of competition legislation.
The internet should not be held in the hands of corporations like this to tell customers what they can get and withhold other things. Yes, we pay for 'high speed' internet and I have no problem with that, but to deny people the services the way Virgin is, it's absolute rubbish. I am glad that people are standing against this and hope that it doesn't catch on. There are issues here with Comcast doing some hazy things as well to try to direct things their way. Net neutrality really must be maintained. If we don't fight now, these sorts of things will become worse and common users will be discriminated against online as will small business owners that can't afford to pay these extra fees. Bandwidth may be an issue but these businesses make a ton of money off us all any way. Perhaps they should upgrade as the rest of us do.
This is like corporations patenting the water supply in third world countries, where not even rain water can be gathered because it, "legally", belongs to a company. An internet premium is rediculous.
