It has been reported that cable companies AT&T Broadband, Charter Communications, and Cox Communications are considering moves which could see the end of cheap bandwidth as they look towards limiting users and forcing them to pay more for additional downloads.
This would be a huge blow for people using file sharing programs like KaZaA and other popular P2P services as they rely on the widespread availability of cheap bandwidth. The cable companies are now hoping to introduce limitations, which could mean the exchange of huge files (or huge numbers of files) could become costly, and the people sharing the files could see growing bills. Packages which could be introduced will force people to pay a fixed fee for a certain amount of bandwidth and if they exceed this additional charges will be implemented.
There have been experiments with different broadband packages by Charter who have been allowing users to make a choice between high and low download rates, with the quicker connection priced higher. In this 60% of people who joined them opted for the slower connection and this is an indication that people are willing to make compromises for cost.
A P2P expert has told Business Week: “This is one of the greatest threats to peer-to-peer file-sharing,”, he then went on to say: “If a critical mass of broadband providers institute pricing structures that make people sensitive to the amount of data they transmit, there will be less sharing.”. A spokesman for the record industry also said: “Tiered pricing won't help artists or labels get paid, but it's a step in the right direction”.
The main reason for the price changes isn’t to stop P2P sharing, however, but is for broadband providers to lure custom as the prices currently charged are seen as too high by many people. In the US $60 billion has been spent in recent years building the networks and providers are struggling to recover this.
News source: BusinessWeek
This would be a huge blow for people using file sharing programs like KaZaA and other popular P2P services as they rely on the widespread availability of cheap bandwidth. The cable companies are now hoping to introduce limitations, which could mean the exchange of huge files (or huge numbers of files) could become costly, and the people sharing the files could see growing bills. Packages which could be introduced will force people to pay a fixed fee for a certain amount of bandwidth and if they exceed this additional charges will be implemented.
There have been experiments with different broadband packages by Charter who have been allowing users to make a choice between high and low download rates, with the quicker connection priced higher. In this 60% of people who joined them opted for the slower connection and this is an indication that people are willing to make compromises for cost.
A P2P expert has told Business Week: “This is one of the greatest threats to peer-to-peer file-sharing,”, he then went on to say: “If a critical mass of broadband providers institute pricing structures that make people sensitive to the amount of data they transmit, there will be less sharing.”. A spokesman for the record industry also said: “Tiered pricing won't help artists or labels get paid, but it's a step in the right direction”.
The main reason for the price changes isn’t to stop P2P sharing, however, but is for broadband providers to lure custom as the prices currently charged are seen as too high by many people. In the US $60 billion has been spent in recent years building the networks and providers are struggling to recover this.
News source: BusinessWeek
Hot Hardware tested the Catalyst 7.72 release and here is a snippet:
- ATi has mentioned that there have been some improvement in benchmarks optimized for performance, particularly at higher resolutions. So we thought we'd run a few quick tests to see what advantages could be gained with the newer 6.13.10.6094s versus the 6.13.10.6071s. Why no OpenGL you ask? To date, the drivers included in the Catalyst package have only implemented changes to enhance Direct3D performance. This isn't to say that our OpenGL friends have been left out of the mix. ATi has made it clear in their documentation that future updates are planned that would help improve OpenGL performance as well.
The Tech-Report got to examine the Catalyst 7.71 package:
- In short, ATI is working actively to improve its drivers. We're seeing new driver revs almost monthly, and they tend to bring minor performance increases along with bug fixes and compatibility improvements. With this CATALYST release, we're also getting a pretty slick new performance tuning feature, plus a marketing/branding initiative, free of charge.
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