Jo Twist, a BBC News Online technology reporter, has done a new article focusing on the problem of flat-rate broadband bandwidth and its congestive effects. The item predicts that we could ALL one day end up paying for our bandwidth consumption, turning broadband into a metered rather than unmetered service:

Many of those who sign up are attracted by peer-to-peer file-swapping, and downloading or streaming large files of video and music.

Problem is, the broadband pipes are getting crowded. As one user downloads their e-mails, another next-door might be trying to watch the latest Kylie video. The resulting congestion makes the broadband experience less satisfactory for both.

Between 60 and 80% of bandwidth is being eaten up by a fraction of customers - who are mainly engaged in peer-to-peer activity - and, according to the industry, the rest are penalised because of the heavy users sharing the network.

Now it's true that ‘some’ ISPs have been testing new technology to help manage bandwidth consumption and or offer more expensive packages for heavy downloader’s, yet to date nothing has come of this.

Indeed one of our recent articles examining this issue (HERE) found that ISPs do recognise that limiting broadband would somewhat defeat its original purpose as a technology.

More over there are currently millions of broadband enabled surfers in the UK and very few have suffered from congestion related problems. In fact with content getting more complex and the Internet getting faster, charging for bandwidth could (long-term) do more harm than good.

Never the less this issue looks to remain wide open for at least another year as ISPs settle into the new technologies and monitor their networks. What happens later is anybodies guess.