scott wrote:
>> Shouldn't that affect *all* traffic, not just YouTube?
> 
> ISPs can throttle the traffic based on where it is coming from, eg 
> YouTube or iPlayer.  It's in their interest to do this, otherwise a load 
> of people using iPlayer could easily bring everyone's internet 
> connection to a halt.

More precisely: ISPs are based on the idea that nobody will use all of 
the bandwidth they've paid for, and therefore it's OK for the ISPs to 
provision the backbone with only a tiny fraction of the bandwidth 
actually required.

And now YouTube and iPlayer are changing the way people use the 
Internet, and ISPs are trying to claim that it's YouTube's "fault" for 
being "irresponsible" by using up all this bandwidth - rather than 
admitting that their networks are underprovisioned because it's more 
profitable that way.

Still, once they start charging by the GB rather than the day, the 
"problem" will solve itself...

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