Google Promise to Expose Bandwidth Throttling By ISPs

[Gizah]

You know how slow internet is these days. There is no explanation for this other than the fact that many African ISP are bent on throttling Bandwidth.

If this is not exposed now, the fiber optic mania that is catching up in the continent will be a waste of time as providers will still squeeze too many people into tiny bandwidth but still charge highly just as they are doing currently.

Google's Vint Cerf has launched an ambitious project to help keep broadband providers honest. Google's MeasurementLab.net aims to collect information about user connections and provide data to users. (http://www.measurementlab.net/)

Here is what google says. "Measurement Lab (M-Lab) is an open platform for researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools. By enhancing Internet transparency, we aim to help sustain a healthy, innovative Internet."

[Albanjoe]

Google is working on a set of network-analysis tools that will allow broadband users to see when their ISP is throttling their connection.

Broadband throttling - or "traffic shaping" as the ISPs prefer to call it - has become a hot issue on both sides of the Atlantic, with ISPs now routinely choking bandwidth at peak hours. Some ISPs block access to bandwidth-intensive applications such as BitTorrent, while others reduce a customer's speed if they pass a download threshold within peak hours.

A lack of transparency from ISPs has often left customers in the dark as to why their connection has slowed. Now Google says it let customers see what's happening on their line. "We're trying to develop tools, software tools... that allow people to detect what's happening with their broadband connections, so they can let [ISPs] know that they're not happy with what they're getting - that they think certain services are being tampered with," said Google senior policy director Richard Whitt, at the Innovation 08 conference in San Francisco, according to a report on The Register.

"If the broadband providers aren't going to tell you exactly what's happening on their networks, we want to give users the power to find out for themselves," he added.

Whitt didn't reveal when the Google tools will become available, nor even if they will be made available outside of the US.

[Gizah]

Here is what the USA government is doing. They have developed a gadget for people to test their broadband. That is what consumers in Africa need to challenge the conniving ISPs.

A snippet of the national policy.

NATIONAL BROADBAND GOALS

Goal 1: At least 100 million U.S. homes should have affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second and actual upload speeds of at least 50 megabits per second.

Goal 2: The United States should lead the world in mobile innovation, with the fastest and most extensive wireless networks of any nation.

Goal 3: Every American should have affordable access to robust broadband service, and the means and skills to subscribe if they so choose.

Goal 4: Every community should have affordable access to at least 1 Gbps broadband service to anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals and government buildings.

Goal 5: To ensure the safety of Americans, every first responder should have access to a nationwide public safety wireless network.

Goal 6: To ensure that America leads in the clean energy economy, every American should be able to use broadband to track and manage their real-time energy consumption.