I would really like to know.. (Seriously)

WHy it costs more for upstream than downstream to an ISP. And what the costs sre for both if anyone knows?

Seems to me if this can be overcome then more upstream wouldn't be something ISP's seem to be scared of.

Thanks in advance.

Interesting question.

I am going to make a complete (probably way of the mark) guess at this and suggest that it may have somethnig to do with web site caching.

I'm thinking that it would take a lot less power for people to receive a stored version of something, ie. today's BBC News page than it would for individuals to upload their own unique data.


As I said though, I am probably very very wrong with my assumption and would like to know the answer to the question as well.

A good guess and intestering point.

I believe though that if you download 1TB they are okay financally but I get the impresion that 1TB up would cost them dearly..

In reply to a post by docki:

WHy it costs more for upstream than downstream to an ISP. And what the costs sre for both if anyone knows?

Seems to me if this can be overcome then more upstream wouldn't be something ISP's seem to be scared of.

Thanks in advance.

Given you work for BT Wholesale you can probably find the answers easily enough but basically it doesn't, the differences relate to usage patterns and in the case of cable access network issues.

I do not work for BT thank you very much.. And if that's really the case why do VM use it as their excuse every time someone asks about why the upload speeds are so low?

There are two reasons, one reason being the technology and the other maintaining the leased line market.

Both ADSL and Docsis (Virgin Media Cable) are designed around the end user predominantly downloading, as such it is a limitation of the technology rather than the ISP�s which are limiting the upload.

Newer technologies such as Docsis 3 and VDSL have addressed this.

Previously, especially when ADSL was new, BT wanted to protect their leased line market, that is one of the reasons why they limited the upstream to 256Kbit.

The costs to the ISP are the same, upstream and downstream.

We buy transit from all the main providers and all charge per MB regardless of direction.

Ian

In reply to a post by docki:

I do not work for BT thank you very much.. And if that's really the case why do VM use it as their excuse every time someone asks about why the upload speeds are so low?

Per my previous post about lies and how when you tell them so often it's easy to lose track:

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/o2/t/3812339-re-o2-...

The exchange is 48 meters away. My line is 128 meters long. I CAN get the top down and 2.5mbps up. I also know this because working for BTW I have also inspected the line.

The truth will set you free.

Regarding the topic in hand CATV networks tend to be biased towards downstream due to their historical use, carrying cable TV, and Virgin have not really focussed on upgrading the upstream / return path portion of their network particularly so they are somewhat restricted in some areas.

Ah yes I did then. But things have changed and I don't now.

In reply to a post by westli2:

The costs to the ISP are the same, upstream and downstream.

We buy transit from all the main providers and all charge per MB regardless of direction.

Ian

So it's per MB? not per GB or per TB? blimey..