Disqus
Mangle my access...
It’s a perennial question amongst Mobile InterWeb users – is my Mobile Operator of choice fiddling with my access to the wider InterWeb?
Recent IT news suggested that Orange was blocking access to The Pirate Bay (which itself doesn’t seem to have been out of the news this year!), but it turns out that was purely a routing issue.
However, browsing on most Mobile devices has been subject to some transcoding for years now, and also most Operators would admit there is some (however subtle) keyword/content checking going on, for content of questionable legality.
Another level on which Mobile Operators have been affecting the content that we can receive on Mobile devices is at the pure data level – since mobile networks are relatively constrained with bandwidth resources, it makes sense that users/cells are targeted for bandwidth throttling.
Of course, on the fixed line Internet the focus has been strongly at the data-level for the last 18 months, with both the increases in (HD) video streaming being exponential, and in parallel, the bandwidth-shaping and monitoring performed by (particularly) the ISPs.
What I am interested in though is whether you find your access is blocked off in certain areas, transcoded, modified, or other – if there are enough comments I’ll pick this up in to a series of posts where we can see who the best/worst (non-)offenders are, and offer up some user-experiences from our esteemed readership!
[Original story via: Tech Digest]
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
