Telstra throttling an unacceptable solution for network congestion

After an announcement eight months ago that it would be trialling a system to reduce the speed of certain types of data, Telstra has confirmed it will be going ahead with a controversial network management trial. The telco has said it was conducting the trial to identify different options and pricing plans for its customers in an attempt to manage congestion issues[1].

Among the types of data being ‘throttled’ is peer-to-peer traffic, and participants in the trial will be asked about speed differences with applications such as BitTorrent. This raises concerns for the Pirate Party with regard to Internet traffic prioritisation.

Pirate Party Australia considers that ‘net neutrality’ — where types of traffic are not discriminate against — is essential for modern Australia. The Party’s policy pushes for a ban on screening and prioritising of traffic based on content, source or destination, with opt-in prioritisation if subscribers choose[2].

“Net neutrality is vital for a free Internet,” said Simon Frew, President of Pirate Party Australia. “Throttling certain services and promoting others will damage any new service or product coming online. Differentiated services is a slippery slope to a situation where companies could pay for their content to be prioritised. The next Google or Facebook, being a start-up would not have access to a comparable speed and would find it more difficult to compete with the more powerful incumbents purely because they could only afford access to the B-Grade Internet. For the Internet to remain a place of innovation any attempt to benefit some sections at the cost of others must be resisted.”

“For example, Telstra owns the rights to stream NRL and AFL games. Being able to prioritise the streaming of their broadcasts would come at the cost of a poorer service for other types of content which would be de-prioritised. Old media and telecommunications companies are always looking for ways to regain control over the flow of information and this gives them a means to achieve it,” Mr Frew continued.

On the other hand, it has been suggested by other ISPs that Telstra is introducing this trial to avoid upgrading its ADSL network[3]. Even if throttling subscribers’ connections may be a way to reduce network congestion without improving the quality of their services or infrastructure, it is not a feasible long-term solution for growing needs.

Pirate Party Australia is a keen supporter of a fibre-to-the-premises National Broadband Network[4]. The current copper network will not be able to adequately support the needs of a growing digital society, whereas fibre will provide access to the Internet without the concerns of congestion or loss of speed over long distances that is experienced using copper. Fibre-to-the-premises would give all businesses and homes a direct optical fibre connection.

“The copper network was built decades ago and was never intended for high-volume digital traffic,” Mr Frew continued. “Using it as a cheaper alternative to optical fibre will only be cheap in the short term, it will still need to be replaced and doing that as part of the NBN roll-out makes much more sense than trying to maintain outdated technology, which will need updating much sooner for Australia to stay competitive.”

Pirate Party Australia has just competed in its first federal election, receiving more than 29,000 votes across four states. Counting continues, but at present this equates to 0.3% of the national vote[5], the strongest result being 0.57% in Tasmania[6].

[1] http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/525993/telstra_moves_ahead_throttling_trial/
[2] https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Policies/Digital_Liberties#Provide_universal_access_to_a_fast.2C_neutral_Internet
[3] http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/452990/iinet_slams_telstra_p2p_throttling_trial/
[4] https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Platform#Support_for_Fibre-to-the-Premises_Infrastructure_Projects
[5] http://vtr.aec.gov.au/SenateStateFirstPrefsByGroup-17496-NAT.htm
[6] http://vtr.aec.gov.au/SenateStateFirstPrefsByGroup-17496-TAS.htm

One thought on “Telstra throttling an unacceptable solution for network congestion

  1. “Telstra is introducing this trial to avoid upgrading its ADSL network”

    There’s no doubt in my mind this is the primary driver of this move. The pursuit of profit will mean they will try anything to avoid spending $$ on infrastructure.

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