Graphic: Dial-up loading times of most popular web sites.
Around 3% of US Internet users are still on dialup, a figure which is likely to be even higher in other countries. This chart shows the estimated load times of the 50 most popular sites in the US, for people using a 56kbit/s dial up modem.According to the HTTP Archive, as of this June the average web page size is just over a megabyte. That takes more than 2 minutes and 30 seconds to load over dial-up.
Major internet providers, including AT&T, Time Warner and Verizon, are slowing data from popular websites to thousands of US businesses and residential customers in dozens of cities across the country, according to a study released on Monday.
The study, conducted by internet activists BattlefortheNet, looked at the results from 300,000 internet users and found significant degradations on the networks of the five largest internet service providers (ISPs), representing 75% of all wireline households across the US.
The findings come weeks after the Federal Communications Commission introduced new rules meant to protect “net neutrality” – the principle that all data is equal online – and keep ISPs from holding traffic speeds for ransom.
Tim Karr of Free Press, one of the groups that makes up BattlefortheNet, said the findings show ISPs are not providing content to users at the speeds they’re paying for.
“For too long, internet access providers and their lobbyists have characterized net neutrality protections as a solution in search of a problem,” said Karr. “Data compiled using the Internet Health Test show us otherwise – that there is widespread and systemic abuse across the network. The irony is that this trove of evidence is becoming public just as many in Congress are trying to strip away the open internet protections that would prevent such bad behavior.”
By taking the Internet Health Test, everyday Internet users helped build the data set that lead to these discoveries.
I believe the FCC must find a way to put open Internet policies back in place … we cannot have a two-tiered Internet with fast lanes that speed the traffic of the privileged and leave the rest of us lagging behind. So as we look for a way forward, I am pleased that Chairman Wheeler has recently acknowledged that all options, including Title II, are on the table.
Yesterday’s Internet Slowdown protest was epic!
Read all about here.
What do an environmental group in Ohio, a small military radio program, and a network of rural hospitals in Texas all have in common? They appear on a list of coalition members for a group pressuring the government to abandon net neutrality—rules to prevent broadband providers from creating Internet fast and slow lanes—but claim they did not intend to sign up for any such advocacy.
Read more here.
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Breaking news: The D.C. Appeals Court just killed Net Neutrality.
This could be the end of the Internet as we know it. But it doesn’t have to be.
Tell the FCC: We Need Real Net Neutrality NOW: http://bit.ly/2XPBtkt
An open internet is an engine for freedom around the world.
Word has leaked that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is building a new Frankenstein proposal that’s not Net Neutrality.
The plan is convoluted with too many of the huge problems we’ve been protesting against all year.
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