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[XiaNaphryz]

https://thestack.com/world/2015/10/...roadband-providers-over-slow-internet-speeds/

NY to probe major broadband providers over slow internet speeds
Alice MacGregor Mon 26 Oct 2015 7.08am

New York is to launch a probe into three leading internet service providers, assessing whether their services are short-changing customers by charging for high-speed internet which they fail to deliver.

According to leaked documents, sent to Verizon Communications, Cablevision Systems and Time Warner Cable, the New York attorney general asked each firm to hand over copies of the advertising and copy they have provided to consumers regarding internet speeds, along with any testing documents which studied the speed of their service.

“New Yorkers deserve the internet speeds they pay for. But, it turns out, many of us may be paying for one thing, and getting another,” stated New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

According to Time Warner Cable spokesperson Bobby Amirshahi, the firm maintains that it provides customers with the speeds and services that are advertised. Cablevision’s Charlie Schueler added that the company’s Optimum Online service “constantly surpasses advertised broadband speeds.” Both organisations have confirmed that they are happy to work with the AG with performance information and to resolve the case.

Verizon is yet to provide comment, claiming it has yet to see the attorney general’s letter.

The probe plans to focus on the exchange of data through contractual partnerships between the ISPs and other networks. The AG office suspects that customers who are paying a premium fee for higher internet speeds could be experiencing a disruption to their service due to technical issues brought about by business disputes in these interconnection deals.

According to a study conducted last year [PDF] by the Measurement Lab Consortium (M-Lab), customers can suffer from slow internet speeds because of these relationships: ‘Internet service provider interconnection has a substantial impact on consumer internet performance – sometimes a severely negative impact.’

A statement from the attorney general’s office said that the inquiry was prompted by the findings of this report, along with customer complaints and other internal analysis.

 

[Xcellere]

 

[demosthenes]

Glad I searched, was just about to post this:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/26/us-internet-probe-new-york-idukkcn0sk0ah20151026

 

[CadetMahoney]

Don't ISP's also throttle internet connections to the advertised speed for the first x amount of Megabytes so that all those garbage "internet speeds tests" websites you see scattered around report close to what you're advertised. When really they go back to slow speeds after a while.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

Don't ISP's also throttle internet connections to the advertised speed for the first x amount of Megabytes so that all those garbage "internet speeds tests" websites you see scattered around report close to what you're advertised. When really they go back to slow speeds after a while.

Yeah, I remember Comcast advertising their turbot "boost" or whatever nonsense a while back, but it was just the first few MBs.

 

[Arkeband]

I have great internet speeds but can't connect well to Blizzard servers due to bottlenecked handoff nodes between Verizon and AT&T.

So yeah, ISP's inter-infrastructure problems should not be the fault of the end user. Upgrade your shit, fat cats.

 

[Kenstar]

I have great internet speeds but can't connect well to Blizzard servers due to bottlenecked handoff nodes between Verizon and AT&T.

So yeah, ISP's inter-infrastructure problems should not be the fault of the end user. Upgrade your shit, fat cats.

Once competition comes around they magically have the will and means to upgrade your service free of charge

Time warner upgraded everyone's speeds in my area, I went from 20/2 to 100/10 for free since Google fiber announced they're coming in the future. The max tier used to be 50/5, that's been upgraded to 300/20 for no additional cost now. When they have to try and actually please customers to keep them from jumping ship things usually go well.

 

[phyrlord]

How bad IS the internet in the US? Some guy on the overwatch sub reddit was complaining about a pre-load so he could pre-load the beta because it was estimated to be 10gigs. supposedly 10gigs takes him 4-6 hours for download.

I asked him how he played modern games because any game is 40-60 gigs to DL and has 10-20 gig day one patchs. I got down voted to hell for 'bragging' about my internet.

I wasn't bragging, 'Normal' internet speeds in Ontario for anyone who isn't a grandma is like 100mbit now. 10 gigs is like a 15-20min DL... IF THAT. That's not even the fastest. I have many friends with 300mbit connections.

Edit: Maybe the problem is, in Ontario it's pretty normal to play close to $100 for those internet packages with VERY little competition. I get the impression that people in the US are used to paying $20 for things.

 

[iamblades]

wget -O /dev/null http://speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com/downloads/test500.zip

Or alternately if you have ftp and want a pure network test:

put “|dd if=/dev/zero bs=3M count=1000″ /dev/null