"Bandwidth hogs" join unicorns in realm of mythical creatures

There's a spectre haunting Internet service providers—the spectre of the "bandwidth hog." But does the mythical beast really exist? One telecom analyst is dubious, and he's calling out the ISPs. Benoit Felten is a Yankee Group analyst who covers fiber to the home issues from Paris, but his "bandwidth hog" challenge is a product of his personal blog, fiberevolution. Felten is a knowledgeable voice on fiber issues, and his blog reliably makes for an interesting read, but it rarely takes the adversarial tone it struck recently. Felten's basic critique concerns bandwidth caps—not because they exist, but because he sees them as disingenuous. Carriers can use them as a way to control bandwidth and wean people away from what the marketing department implicitly promises: all-you-can-surf Internet access for one monthly fee. The caps are sold as cutting off "bandwidth hogs" who use "more than their fair share," but Felten's take is that ISPs really have no idea if these people are causing any sort of actual congestion at all.