[jkilpatr]

With modern congestion control oversubscribed connections can run smooth as butter for most users.

Despite this essentially no ISPs use them. I have coworkers, friends, and family members who can't reliably video-call on their '300mbps down / 15mbps up' cable connections because upload is oversubscribed 50 to 1 and one person on their drop has dropbox uploading.

Any sort of modern congestion control would fix this instantly, give everyone a better experience.

But modern ISPs refuse to consider it.

I once took a informal survey of why at a network operators meetup.

The answer was universal, article titles like this mean that they would rather everyone have bad service all the time than deal with any potential bad publicity.

I really hate Google as a company, but this isn't worth complaining about until they actively refuse to fix problems. It's especially not worth punishing Google for being transparent about the algorithm so external researchers can find flaws rather than hiding it.

[pixl97]

And it seems lots of router vendors dont give you decent options of setting your congestion control algorithm. Their QoS settings are stuck in the mid2000s.

[snagglegaggle]

Or.. they could not oversubscribe their lines? Cuts into their profit margins, sure, and they'll need to reinvest in their infrastructure, but it makes the whole business a lot less unethical.

[jkilpatr]

It's a Malthusian trap if you don't advertise 100 some other dude advertises 100 and customers think you need 100mbps to browse facebook because the 100 connection they got from that dude wasn't so good. So they won't even consider your real 50mbps connection.

Selling speeds is a scam, but until enforcement is solid you can't afford not to oversubscribe.