So… is this a Net Neutrality issue?

Internet Service Providers to BBC: We will throttle iPlayer unless you pay up

Based on comments on this blog and discussions on Michael Geists site among others: it is.

I of course disagree – the BBC designed their product knowing full well that using a Peer-to-peer protocol would land them in trouble with ISPs on Bandwidth usage and continuous connection issues. British ISPs have been having a lot of trouble as they usually get their DSL Access through BT Wholesale.

Though as Michael points out BT is not complaining. Probably because they have implemented packet prioritization on their networks to make sure these peer to peer (p2p) applications don’t interrupt their own services.

BT, for instance, recent became Ellacoya’s single largest customer, using its gear to support more than 3 million broadband subscribers. According to BT, deep packet inspection enables them to better monitor their network, but it also allows them to apply QoS to two important services. VoIP, to be useful, needs to move quickly, so BT gives it priority on the network. BT also runs its own IPTV system, with the data apparently flowing over the same network as user data. To prevent distortion in the TV signal whenever half the country decides to download an episode of Little Britain using P2P, BT uses QoS to make sure a fixed amount of bandwidth is always available to IPTV.

This should be a harbinger of things to come here in Canada.