Internet Overbooking
Let's face it not all internet connections were created equal.
Internet connections come in all shapes and sizes ranging from horrifically slow dialup connections to high speed Wireless, Satellite, DSL and Cable broadband connections.
Now days more and more people have joined the broadband wagon and it seems that the broadband has taken over the world.
But even broadband connections differ significantly in speed and Quality of Service (QOS).
Further more, many users do not experience a fraction of the speed that they are promised by their Internet Service Providers or ISP's.
There are several problems related to underperforming internet connections, but one of the main problems is connection overbooking.
Internet Service Providers or ISP's, purchase bandwidth and telecommunications equipment. The bandwidth and equipment are expensive and in general ISP's tend to have the minimum bandwidth and equipment they can get away with, with out losing most of their customers.
This is where overbooking comes to play.
Overbooking is an accepted standard within the ISP industry and in other industries such as the airline industry.
For airline companies overbooking means: book more people to each flight then can actually fit into any given plane. The underlying assumption is that you will always have cancellations hence overbooking ensures a near optimal usage of airplane space.
The ISP's of the world use the same concept to optimize their profits.
For ISP's the overbooking principle works on the assumption that most users will not be using their Internet connection at full capacity all of the time.
Another hidden and more sinister assumption, used by some ISP's, is that most users do not even know or understand what bandwidth they are supposed to have and consequently what speeds of download, upload and QOS they are supposed to achieve.
The ISP's overbooking industry standard normally stands between 1:10 to 1:50 ratios.
This means that for every 10 to 50 customers they promise X amount of bandwidth they can only provide X amount of bandwidth at any given time (instead of the promised 10X to 50X bandwidth).
To put it differently 10 to 50 customers will be sharing X amount of bandwidth instead of having X amount of bandwidth dedicated to each one of them.
It might seem a horrible scam but surprisingly it works well for both the Airline companies and the ISP's assuming they keep their ratios down to an acceptable level.
Sure you will always have a few disgruntled customers, ones that booked a flight only to find that there is not enough space on the flight or people that find their Internet connection unbearably slow.
Airlines deal with this problem by offering rewards to people who are willing to give up their space.
ISP's normally dismiss client's complaints, saying things along the lines of: “prove to me that your connection is not performing well” or “The problem is with your home equipment” or “Sorry, you should have read the fine print, we never promised…” etc.
If they are faced with a really persistent customer they might offer him a free month of service but normally they will just promise they will look into it and then burry the problem.
So when does overbooking become a problem?
The problem starts when ISP's start to get too greedy.
When this happens overbooking goes well beyond 1:10 to 1:50 ratios.
During the past several years we have seen several ISP's over the world that take the ratios up to 1:100 and even to 1:200.
What this means, at such high share ratios, that most customers in most hours of the day will suffer great delays, reduced bandwidth and an overall lousy internet connection.
Some of us who live in major metropolitan areas are lucky enough to have a choice of ISP's, there by increasing competition and improving service levels.
But most of us do not have many options to choose from or get stuck in draconic agreements that lock us in for long periods of time.
If you suspect that your service is not up to par and you would like to check your real connection speed and QOS you can run a test over here.
If you consistently do not receive a upload and download speeds that are at least 80% of the promised upload and download speed you might be a victim of excessive overbooking or just a plain old BSS(Bad Service Syndrome).
If your QOS is below 80% certain bandwidth sensitive applications like Voice Over IP applications (e.g. Skype, Vonage Etc.) and online games will not deliver good performance.
Here are a few things you can do when your connection is not as good as promised:
- Complain to your ISP using email or the phone. When enough people complain they will start thinking about improving the situation.
- Threaten you will leave them for another ISP (even if you don't have another viable option). This might give you some discounts or upgraded service.
- Shop around for alternative solutions and if possible replace your ISP for a better one.
To sum things up, overbooking is a real problem for many internet users.
Currently, in my opinion, there is not enough regulation on internet service providers.
Some of them tend to promise their clients promises that they never intend to keep.
Others obscure the actual offers they make with technical and legal jargon that is incoherent to most users; leaving most users unaware of the real service levels they are supposed to be receiving.
If an ISP advertises a certain level of service they should be clearer about what the actual service level is going to be like.
You can not in good faith, tell your customers that they will have a broadband connection with a certain amount of bandwidth, when in fact, most of the time they will be receiving a fraction of that amount.
And last but not least, remember that you are paying your hard earned money to your ISP and there is no good reason why you should not be getting your moneys worth.
Next time we will talk about what can be done on your end to improve your internet connection speed and QOS.
Until next time,
DR. OOS.
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