iBurst defends policing policy

Johannesburg, 31 Aug 2007

iBurst has come out swinging against customer complaints about its bandwidth shaping policy. The measure slows the speed at which bulk users can run certain applications and engage in file sharing via the company's broadband network.

Head of product development Antony McKechnie says, bearing in mind the environment in which South African ISPs operate in terms of high imposed costs and limited bandwidth availability, "it's clear iBurst's shaping policies are reasonable and criticism in this regard has been particularly unfair".

McKechnie says before iBurst started policing its broadband, many iBurst subscribers were regularly experiencing uncharacteristically slow wireless broadband speeds.

"Shaping simply recognises that every iBurst subscriber is equal and should, therefore, have an equal opportunity at accessing available network resources," he says.

Fair to all

"We're convinced that determining which network services receive high priority (typically browsing and other applications critical to the majority of iBurst subscribers) and which receive low priority (typically peer-to-peer file sharing) has to a significant degree helped ensure fair and satisfactory network performance that is ultimately appreciated by all iBurst subscribers," he adds.

"Shaping is about acknowledging that Internet traffic is like any other traffic."

He explains that in order for all Internet traffic to reach their destinations quickly, ISPs like iBurst are compelled to police the "information superhighway" to ensure certain types of traffic do not unfairly prevent other traffic from reaching their destination.

"There is nothing sinister about shaping and the only reason it exists is to ensure fairness prevails in cyberspace," McKechnie says.

"It is in fact still possible for these users to run certain applications and engage in file sharing. However, iBurst has by necessity and for no other reason had to restrict the speeds at which all of this can take place."