NPR: So, What's Really the Story with 'Bandwidth Shaping'?

So, What's Really the Story with 'Bandwidth Shaping'?

Last week, we posted a piece about "bandwidth shaping" -- a method Internet service providers use to slow down users when demand is high. Sensing we might be looking at a tip-of-the-iceberg thing, I called BBC Internet expert Bill Thompson, a source for a piece we had linked to in the post (and systems administrator for a site used by British MPs), to learn more.

First, don't call it "bandwidth shaping," Thompson says. That's corporate speak. He says he calls it what it really is -- "throttling," the same as throttling back a train.

"It's like falling off a cliff" -- that's how fast your Internet connection can suddenly slow down these days, Thompson says, adding sometimes ISPs will slow down the whole network, not just heavy users, to handle peak periods.

Most Internet users haven't noticed that their connections are slower because they're not online a lot, he says. But it has attracted attention from early Internet adopters (who are apt to follow what's happening on the Web), gamers and other such folks who spend a lot of time online.

Thompson also reminded me that this isn't the first time online consumers have seen their bandwidth cut back. When companies started offering "unlimited access" instead of making customers pay for dial-up per hour, users flocked to those ISPs, and it created a problem. So ISPs redefined "unlimited" as a certain number of hours a day -- an attempt to pull back heavy users, whose accounts could be affected if they went over.

Thompson believes we could soon see the same kind of limited "unlimited access" descriptions applied to broadband connections.

How about you folks? Has anyone else noticed problems with their broadband connections of the sort we've been talking about? Has anyone heard from their ISPs about "bandwidth shaping"?

12:27 PM ET | 06-26-2007 | permalink

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