Why such low caps on uploads?

[Macbeth]

Why is it that download caps are so much higher than upload caps in most cases? I'm sure it's a money/profit reason that cable companies have, but what is it about upload speeds that they are capped more than download?

[Kip Patterson]

When the original two-way cable systems were created in 1978, the Internet barely existed as a government entity, and the upstream portion of the cable network was thought of as something that would only be used for interactive programming. That did not work out, but before they gave up there was a game between the Browns and the Bengals where the audience called the plays for one of the teams! At that time, the cable spectru was divided, allocating 5 to 42 Mhz, approximately, to upstream and 60 to 400 for downstream. Today, the downstream goes up to as much as 970 Mhz, but the upstream is still 5 to 42. That means that there is much less data bandwidth available for the upstream.

There is discussion everywhere one looks about the 128k cap. Most folks believe it is there to keep folks from hosting web sites and games.

Kip

[TonyT]

The real reason is money.

Download bandwidth costs the cable provider peanuts, about $2.00/gigabyte, but upstream cost much much more. Besides, the advantage of the www for the end user is downloading data, not uploading.

Internet access is considered "entertainment" and is viewed as such by the isp. Business class service is diferent though, where it is expected that a business will run web servers and transfer more data upstream.

[BoGGy]

there just punks

[ASAP]

I also don't understand why upload speeds should be so different from download speeds. I've been trying to play Halo online with my Xbox and when more than 4 people connect, I get a lag due to my upload speed capped at 128 Kbps. I'm sure somekind of hardware can be made to increase the upload speed and yet be cost efficient. There are many hardwares and machines that are never used, and it just makes me mad. For example the electric companies complain about not enough electricity in CA, but yet there's so many methods and techniques to increase electricity with less amount of generator power, yet the stupid greedy electricity companies refuse to use them in an attempt to increase rates (Supply and demand)!!!! The same goes for gasoline powered cars, and for ao many other things one of them broadband internet!!!

[martialcomp]

Upstream costs much more than downstream. I am starting to wonder if we are heading in to a new era of Tier pricing plans. In the past, the hope was that grandma, that uses her high speed broadband for email, offsets the teenager downloading crackz, warez, mp3's and divx (did I forget? He runs a gaming server as well). It is apparent that making money on a residential broadband connection is difficult if not impossible. Too many people want to pay no more than $30 a month and use $100.00 a month in upstream and downstream bandwidth. This is why I think more and more MSO's will eventually go with a Tiered pricing plan.

In the future, upstream will cost less. We are already seeing the price of T-1's down to 6 or even $500 a month. For the upstream caps to be raised on residential broadband connections...one more thing needs to happen. Companies that are running OC3's and T-1's need to upgrade to OC48's (2.5 Gps) and OC192's (10 Gps). These upgrades cost money. I also feel that residential broadband carriers need to be very careful about raising upstream caps or they could actually bog down servers on the internet that they cannot control. The increase in traffic could actually cause packets to get backed up at servers due to the increase in traffic. The traffic can be re-routed, but what happens when every route yields the same results? Packet loss, latency at gaming servers and slow download speeds. I personally believe we are seeing some of this today in the form of latency at gaming servers. In some cases it is the gaming servers themselves, in others it is latency at routes on the way.

[Phantom-Vortex]

Originally posted by Kip Patterson
When the original two-way cable systems were created in 1978, the Internet barely existed as a government entity, and the upstream portion of the cable network was thought of as something that would only be used for interactive programming. That did not work out, but before they gave up there was a game between the Browns and the Bengals where the audience called the plays for one of the teams! At that time, the cable spectru was divided, allocating 5 to 42 Mhz, approximately, to upstream and 60 to 400 for downstream. Today, the downstream goes up to as much as 970 Mhz, but the upstream is still 5 to 42. That means that there is much less data bandwidth available for the upstream.

There is discussion everywhere one looks about the 128k cap. Most folks believe it is there to keep folks from hosting web sites and games.

Kip

Kip....do you work for a cable company????Im am really starting to think you do.Oh and my 2 cents,from the isp I work for, the reason is greedy phone companies\isps not wanting people to host anything without paying $$$.

[Kip Patterson]

No, I don't. I'm retired. And tired. I just do a little consulting.

Kip

[glen4cindy]

Originally posted by Phantom-Vortex




Kip....do you work for a cable company????Im am really starting to think you do.Oh and my 2 cents,from the isp I work for, the reason is greedy phone companies\isps not wanting people to host anything without paying $$$.

What is wrong with working for the cable company? The knowledge I have gained from working for the High-Speed Data group in the cable company has helped me help others here in this forum.

[Phantom-Vortex]

I never said anything was wrong....could you point out where I said something was wrong???

[Syclone_A]

i think glen4cindy is confused, either that or making a bad assumption