Network scaremongering is a contentious issue

When the first 500 broadband customers joined the internet revolution through a Demon branded internet service way back in 2000, the journey to an IP-centric world was only just beginning. Always on internet access had become a reality with a speed that was almost instant, saving the trek to the kitchen to make a cup of tea while you waited for pages to load on your dial up connection.

Since then, we've seen the bandwidth available increase to 2Mbps, 8Mbps, up to 24Mbps and with it, a raft of new applications and online content. The launch of BBC iPlayer at Christmas is yet another medium that is only made possible with the advent of high speed broadband.

Businesses in the UK have been making use of IP networks for a number of years and reaping the benefits therein. Most commonly, companies have linked their sites throughout the UK with IP-based networks, allowing them to share high volumes of data and more advanced applications bringing commercial and productivity benefits.  More specific examples are a number of commercial radio stations who now multicast their audio broadcasts over an IP network and educational institutions who use IP networks to support bandwidth intensive research projects. Regardless of its end use, the important thing to note is that all of these organisations are taking high bandwidth services, in some cases, multiple 10Gbps connections and not one service provider has reported that the networks can't support the demand.

Yet all of a sudden, consumer ISPs are throwing their hands up in horror and complaining that the networks simply won't be able to cope with customers downloading increasing amounts of content from iPlayer. So, as an industry our networks can support multiple Gigabit connections for businesses yet we can't support the bandwidth necessary for consumers to download from iPlayer?

The issue here isn't that the networks aren't capable of supporting this type of media - of course they are. This issue is that consumer ISPs have adopted a "stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap" business model. Heaven forbid that consumers may actually want to use the internet for something more than a bit of online shopping, reading some web pages and playing the odd online video game. that would break the business model.

It goes back to the old adage: you get what you pay for. If you buy a cheap internet service then of course you're going to experience contention when you're sharing that bandwidth with up to 50 other users; that in itself is going to affect the actual amount of bandwidth you get. If you have a broadband connection of up to 8Mbps, then if you're close to an exchange, theoretically that's the download speed you'll get. However, if all your neighbours are online at the same time playing World of Warcraft or downloading large video files then you'll be lucky if you get 1Mbps let alone 8Mbps. iPlayer is just another medium for downloading content.

The problem is, it's the consumer ISPs' business models that are fundamentally flawed. The race to see who can provide the cheapest service, and get the most customers, has led to compromising the service that customers get. Naturally, the cheap services on offer have high contention ratios and will have fair usage policies restricting the amount of content that can be downloaded.

Let's take a simple analogy, if you sell an off peak membership at the local gym, your fair usage policy (or restriction) is that it can only be used in off peak hours and if the gym is full of other customers at that time, then your members just have to wait their turn for the rowing machine. Similarly, if customers buy cheap broadband, with fair usage limits on a highly contended bandwidth they can expect to share that connection with a number of other people and have a restriction on the amount of content that they can download.

However, if customers want to go into the gym whenever they like and have the rowing machine all to themselves then they need to find a gym that offers that type of service and pay a premium for that type of membership. The comparison here is that cheap consumer broadband services are a one size fits all model and they don't offer the range of options that consumers really need.

Instead of just trying to get as many customers as possible on their networks, consumer ISPs need to adopt a business ISP model approach; provide a scalable range of products and services that meet the needs of the businesses depending on what size the company is or usage that's required. Consumer ISPs should be considering a similar model to business ISPs. If a customer wants basic surfing with a small amount of download capability, then offer them a basic package. But, if customers want to download or stream from iPlayer or similar high bandwidth services, then a different type of package is required.

The key here is to make it clear to customers what bang they're going to get for their buck and make sure you sell them a product that actually meets their needs. That's not just a business model approach - it makes good business sense.

Nigel Stevens is product director at business ISP Thus

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