Is your Internet service being throttled down?

An increasing demand for bandwidth has some providers changing the rules.

from the June 27, 2007 edition

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As a result, ISPs – in particular, cable companies – have quietly instituted polices to control the flow to heavy users. For instance, users of Time Warner's Road Runner Internet service received an e-mail notifying them that the company will use bandwidth shaping to deal with heavy users – so-called "bandwidth hogs."

On the surface, the decision seems to make sense. You don't want one person to ruin the Internet experience for many. But some people feel ISPs have misled them, throttling service, the way you throttle back a locomotive. In Britain, where bandwidth shaping has also been initiated, an e-petition on Prime Minister Tony Blair's website is campaigning against the reduction in bandwidth (http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/broadbandripoff/).

"The problem is, they are selling a product by speed and are not offering this speed at peak times [anywhere from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m.], which means the service you are paying for is not the service you bought or was advertised," writes Lee Sexton, a British engineer who started the petition drive. The petition has about 1,000 electronic signatures so far.

While Mr. Sexton is complaining about regular services, ISPs also offer premium services at higher prices so you can have more bandwidth. Will those who buy this kind of package open themselves up to a virtual slap on the wrist for their Net habits?

"It will depend on individual ISPs," says Mr. Thompson. "If they are smart, they will reserve high-speed bandwidth and routers for [premium] customers. Or they could just shape them at will, along with the customers who are paying for the lower-priced services. There is a way to do it properly, and there is a way to do it cheaply. And I suspect I know which way the ISPs will go."

For now, anyone using a high bandwidth connection should find out what their ISP's policies are. Most are posted on the company's website, but they often are well hidden. (I had to drill down into my ISP's site to find its policy.)

Before paying more for a premium connection, learn about the ISP's policies on "throttling." Otherwise, it will be like, well, opening a faucet and just watching the water – in this case, your money – disappear down the drain.

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