Major UK ISP: video streaming's "free ride" is over

Major UK Internet provider BT, one of the UK's largest ISPs says that the "free ride" is over for popular Web services like video streaming, which are building "very profitable business models" by using ISP pipes. In BT's view, it's time for streaming video to pay up for better service. ars technica reports.

BT appears to be saying that high-bandwidth video streaming, in particular, is just too expensive to offer without limits on its cheapest plan.

That plan, called "Option 1," offers 10GB/month of data transfer, imposes throttling on P2P connections during parts of the day, throttles anyone who's a "heavy user," and places a limit of 896Kbps on video streaming services between 5pm and midnight.

BT's own "fair usage policy" spells all this out, which makes the discrimination legal in the UK.

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emily | 10:43 AM | Copypright Issues |
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