AFAIK, ISPs advertise a given rate (for me, on ADSL, 1.5Mbps). The terms of service stipulate that this rate is the maximum, with a certain guaranteed rate that you will always get which is much lower. Call this the CIR.
If the ISP has not designed its infrastructure to handle, at minimum, 100% of it's clientele at contract-specific CIR, then it becomes potentially liable for breach of contract as I understand it. However, if it has not provisioned for 100% of clients at advartised rates, it is not technically required to do anything.
However, if the user base sees sufficient slowdown and, despite the contractual statements regarding CIR et al, decides to go elsewhere, then the ISP will have to decide just how it wants to handle it. In that sense it would be self-regulating I think.
On the other hand, if the BBC service is policed / shaped to a sufficient extent, then the problem becomes a different one altogether.
I think the problem lies square with the ISPs and that the BBC doesn't "have" to do anything. It falls in the same league as any other streaming media site, peer-to-peer application, torrent activity... and so on. Just that in this case, I guess they feel they can pressure the Beeb cause, well, it's the Beeb. |
