Cox plans to introduce Elite Gamer Fast Lane on it's service

Jamar870

Could this be the begining of the end for the internet as we know it now? I might blame twitch game online users if this starts a trend among ISPs.  Here's a link to the article: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/cox-elite-gamer-internet-fast-lane,39176.html

SBFord

And so it begins. Overturning Net Neutrality was such a terrible mistake and this is only the first salvo. I doubt it will be limited to cable only. They're all going to get in on it.

This is going to have a huge impact on competitive gaming.

Valentina

SBFord said:

And so it begins. Overturning Net Neutrality was such a terrible mistake and this is only the first salvo. I doubt it will be limited to cable only. They're all going to get in on it.

This is going to have a huge impact on competitive gaming.

Yeah by making it only a viable thing for people who can afford it. It sucks, hope congress passes the net neutrality law to reinstate it.

Cleffy

All traffic isn't equal which is one of the reasons why the Open Internet Rules of 2015 were so damaging. Enforcing Net Neutrality is actually quite difficult and why countries like Norway have dropped it since implementing it.
Given the ways the internet is delivered, Cable Companies are in a particularly special position in offering fast lanes without congesting their existing infrastructure. They have 153 channels to work with and only use 32 for internet traffic. Dedicating a channel for a particular type of traffic does not come with the overhead of other forms of limiting traffic.
Just as long as they are honest in their delivery then I don't see a problem with them offering such a service. They are offering people to pay $15 more in order to have a superficial benefit in a game. They aren't charging another ISP access to their network or creating pay walls which may result in an FTC violation and create tension with their ISP partners.
I imagine they are already parsing video streaming and other types of data already in order to more efficiently meet load demands during peak times.

Kyleran

I dunno,  people can already pay for advantages like better rigs, peripherals, higher speed cable, macroing programs etc, what's one more?

Vrika

Kyleran said:

I dunno,  people can already pay for advantages like better rigs, peripherals, higher speed cable, macroing programs etc, what's one more?

There are two huge problems with it:

1) Offering elite service usually comes with slowing other services so that customers would pay for the premium - just look at Intel implementing extra functionality to prevent overclocking if your processor isn't the elite K -version

2) It's all good for the games selected to have this elite functionality, but how about games that do not get selected by the ISP? 

Kyleran

Vrika said: huh

Kyleran said:

I dunno,  people can already pay for advantages like better rigs, peripherals, higher speed cable, macroing programs etc, what's one more?

There are two huge problems with it:

1) Offering elite service usually comes with slowing other services so that customers would pay for the premium - just look at Intel implementing extra functionality to prevent overclocking if your processor isn't the elite K -version

2) It's all good for the games selected to have this elite functionality, but how about games that do not get selected by the ISP? 

First world problems, not serious concerns, at least to me.

Aragoni

I'm so happy I live in Sweden. Unlimited 100/100 for 29 euros.

Phry

The only way it will work is if all the other ISP's play along, and this is worldwide, if their service is 'blocked' which could happen, by other ISP's then the service becomes useless if not an absolute liability to anyone who uses it, in short they can only create a multi tiered network if they own and control the network, as a portal they can only slow down peoples connections and that is it, they can't guarantee anyone a better internet connection because its outside of their control.

Thane

sounds like fastpath to me, was pretty standard some time ago (IDSN).

but at least they didn't make it that obvious (and it was like 1 or 5 bucks more

AlBQuirky

Did anyone else think this was about City of Heroes/Villains (CoX)?
(Cox Cable, I know...)

Since I'm not a competitive eSports player, it really matters not to me. As Kyleran pointed out, there are many, many ways money can be milked for better pieces of the gaming puzzle

VengeSunsoar

AlBQuirky said:

Did anyone else think this was about City of Heroes/Villains (CoX)?
(Cox Cable, I know...)

Since I'm not a competitive eSports player, it really matters not to me. As Kyleran pointed out, there are many, many ways money can be milked for better pieces of the gaming puzzle

I did. I'm disappointed.