Why was my international internet connection very slow?

With much attention on speed to the exchange and (occasionally) on the backhaul network, there does not seem to be any discussion on data rates on international links.

For most of June, Skype calls to my son-in-law in Hong Kong became unusable. He was able to see me but video from him was unusable (4 frames per second and very very low resolution).

I am on FTTC and he is on cable (similar speed) and we both have good speed tests (to local servers). I performed a speedtest.net to a Hong Kong server and got only 1.8/0.43 Mbps while tests to servers in most other countries gave excellent results. At that time, my son-in-law did not do the corresponding test.

The problem has gone now, we both have reasonable long distance performance and Skype is fine

So if we get the problem again whose ISP do we complain to? My guess is that it would be the sender of data that chooses (and pays for) the route but I could be wrong.

And what obligation does an ISP have to provide reasonable quality links internationally?

It's obviously a skype problem - ask them.

Cuz it's long distance!

Depends on where the moon is, with its magnetic field dragging electrons off the line.

In reply to a post by dorcots:

And what obligation does an ISP have to provide reasonable quality links internationally?

Simple answer for that one. No obligation at all.

In reply to a post by dorcots:

And what obligation does an ISP have to provide reasonable quality links internationally?

None whatsoever.

If you're with a bargin basement UK ISP then its likely their network peering will be running "hotter" than others.

I'm on BE and regularly talk to my sister in the US via Skype, or more recently Apple Facetime (she has iPad, I have a Mac) and they both work flawlessly.