Slow Internet Enrages Public
Consumers and Internet suppliers are facing off in front of legislators in Canada to debate how congested Canada’s Internet really is. The people believe that the Internet has decreased to crawl due to the ISP’s handling of Internet traffic, and their practice of trying to consolidate it all into smaller channels. The ISPs claim they are doing the best they can, but the massive amount of traffic they encounter will inevitably lead to slower browsing times if they hope to accommodate everyone who is surfing.
The Internet companies believe the solution to the speed problem is to slow down certain applications which don’t require as much bandwidth, and speed up others that require more. They urge legislators to not create any time guidelines for loading sequences, as the Internet is a rapidly evolving place and these rules and regulations would be difficult to instate in a timely manner on every new website that pops up. By giving them the control, they could eliminate the inequalities in network speeds created by the public.
Thus, the debate rages; can ISPs regulate Internet traffic? The public says no, as some people who use peer to peer file sharing programs could be hit hard by the regulation, as these types of applications require lots and lots of bandwidth. Internet providers assert that regulating these high bandwidth application is simply a choice of the lesser of two evils: most people can travel much more quickly, while some will have to wait longer to share and download files.
