SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
For many years in the early aughts, broadband providers insisted they needed to impose usage caps and costly overage fees to help manage network congestion. By 2015, leaked documents from Comcast revealed that was never true. In the years since, even industry CEOs have acknowledged that the limits are little more than an additional tax on captive customers in uncompetitive U.S. broadband markets.
As COVID-19 struck, ISPs quickly bowed to pressure to eliminate such restrictions so home-bound Americans weren't inundated with significantly higher bills. In a press release, Comcast makes it clear that its network has (gasp), performed perfectly well under the added load -- despite a 32% increase in upstream traffic and 18% increase in downstream traffic. There's been a 77% surge in gaming downloads, a 37% bump in streaming video consumption, and a 228% bump in VOIP and teleconferencing use. This is, Comcast says, causing no issues for Comcast:
"Our ongoing, proactive network investment to add fiber and capacity has put us in a good position to manage the increases that we are experiencing today. While the COVID-19 experience is new and unprecedented, the Internet ecosystem is flexible and performing the way it was designed. We engineer the network to handle spikes and shifts in usage, and what we have seen so far with COVID-19 is within our capacity."
Many ISPs, like Comcast, backed off the "congestion" claims a few years ago after their own memos, and numerous researchers and journalists, kept debunking them.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday April 28 2020, @10:47PM (15 children)
I wonder if this year is Peak Dishonesty, because reality is finally kicking a lot of Know-Nothings in the butt. The more bull they get away with, the deeper they go. I read that a few people actually believed that ridiculous assertion that injecting themselves with bleach could cure a Coronavirus infection, and have had to go to the emergency, for poisoning. Even if it is, we're probably stuck with greed for a while yet.
As for the lying telecoms weasels in charge, nothing will change until there are real consequences. Yeah, sure could drag them into court with a massive class action lawsuit. But I'd rather see some good old fashioned competition, some real capitalism, not fake capitalism.
(Score: 2, Funny) by gmby on Tuesday April 28 2020, @10:57PM (1 child)
It's coming; already in space. The INet2 will be the savor of us all! Thanks to Elon Muck
Now if he could host our sites in the SpaceNebula(c) all will be cool. No country could claim ownership.
Bye
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Freeman on Wednesday April 29 2020, @12:44AM
I for one have high hopes for Starlink. Probably too high, but any competition in the telecom business is good. Just look at google fiber. They barely made a dent, but everywhere they went, AT&T, et al, magically made their service better.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2020, @12:43AM (7 children)
The people injecting bleach and drinking lysol are probably the same idiots that believe concast. I really can't believe someone is that dumb.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2020, @01:21AM
In WW1 the Germans cleansed the lungs of the English working class with chlorine gas while they were observing lockdown due to machine-gun fire. Nobody died of coronavirus.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday April 29 2020, @03:33AM (5 children)
Did you forget about the people (mostly kids) eating Tide Pods, long before Covid-19? Dumb has been around for a long time.
Still, I have to wonder if they're immune to Covid-19...
/s
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2020, @07:16AM
Federal funding for you - conditional on ahhhh joking! Funding approved.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Snotnose on Wednesday April 29 2020, @01:41PM (1 child)
You might try a Trumptini: 1 part bleach, 1 part disinfectant, 1 tide pod.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday April 29 2020, @11:40PM
Ya gotta admit, it'll kill the virus!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 29 2020, @03:08PM (1 child)
Or in truly ancient times, when one asked another to "hold my beer". Aye, stupidity has been with us for time beyond reckoning.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2020, @03:16PM
Hold my bleach.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2020, @03:15AM
Translation: "I hope Trump loses the next election"
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 29 2020, @02:52PM (3 children)
Why would it be? For example, it's not even close to the crazy that led up to the Second World War. For example, I just read yesterday about a profoundly stupid accident [theguardian.com] in 1936 where an English schoolteacher led 27 children into a blizzard in the Black Forest in Germany, killing five children from hypothermia. But he got off scot free because a French radio station had falsely accused German authorities of negligence.
As a result, the culprit teacher was still teaching [theguardian.com] in 1963.
Sorry, Trump's tweets don't measure up.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2020, @03:22PM (1 child)
>...a decision that effectively put the lid on any further investigation....
Yes I'm seeing the resonance. Let's move along, nothing to see here. No collusion or nepotism or treason just perfect phone calls. I said move along citizen.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 29 2020, @03:58PM
Lack of evidence causes that. Accuse someone of a crime, then you should have evidence of that crime.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday April 30 2020, @07:10PM
Actually, I suspect propaganda and lies have been in a centuries long decline, for the simple reason that, thanks to technological advance, information is harder to control. Right now, the pendulum has swung about as far is it can swing towards maximum dishonesty, or so I hope.
Yes, history. When you look at the historic record, the Middle Ages was incredibly backward on facts and verification, on so many levels. No printing press, no tradition of newspapers and reporting, no school for the masses, and consequently, mass illiteracy. Propagandists had virtually free rein. Their biggest problem may have been the difficulty of mere dissemination their messages. And what did they do? Boost Catholicism and Monarchism, 2 flavors of extremely controlling and hierarchical organization all too prone to abuse and tyranny. The system ultimately collapsed for a number of reasons, centered around no longer being able to get away with all the lies they'd been telling over the previous centuries.
The Nazis pioneered the use of the new tech of their day to amplify their propaganda. Ultimately, however, better communication was detrimental to their movement. The record of their atrocities is far, far better recorded. Holocaust deniers have even less of a leg to stand on than propagandists of long ago. For instance, King Richard III of England, who reigned at the close of the Middle Ages, was the last to be slain in battle-- in a civil war at that, the War of the Roses. He was thoroughly demonized, and that negative image persisted almost to this day. The discovery of his body just 7 years ago helped spur further examination and interest. 500 years is a long time for a load of propaganda to last, and the Nazis will never match that. In recent times, I credit the growth in video recording capability with finally piercing the Blue Wall of silence and denial that police had routinely used to quell the suspicions that many were thugs and racists. Televangelists too are having a hard time managing. Harder to get away with contradicting yourself.