ADSL: good step forward, but not enough

We have become accustomed to criticising the sometimes less-than-perfect performance and service of the Internet providers in Jordan. A few days ago, however, I was reminded that they can also come up with positive action. It’s only fair to acknowledge that. Upon renewing my two annual ADSL subscriptions recently, one for home and the other for the office, I was told that I could have a speed upgrade from the current 8Mbps up to 24Mbps, for no extra charge at all. It just took the technical department a couple of minutes on the phone to check that the telecom cabling infrastructure in my geographical location in Amman indeed allowed for a 24Mbps connection. Two days later they sent another tech team to replace my old modem with a newer one, a model that was compatible with the new speed, and it was done! Moving from 8Mbps up to 24Mbps is great. In theory it is a threefold, significant increase in speed. In practice, the good news must be tempered. As commendable as my ISP’s initiative may be, and I thank them for that, not everything now is “three times better or faster”. To start with, the total download quantity allowed per month — the quota — has not changed. It is still in the range of 20GB to 40GB — 40GB in my case. For most homes this is plenty, for businesses and for IT professionals who need to download software they purchase online this quota can prove to be a limitation. Many packages you buy online are as big as 1GB each, and this eats up a substantial share of your monthly quota. Could we please have 80GB or 100GB one day? The second element of temperament is the actual measured speed. It’s 24Mbps in theory, but actually measured it’s an average 14Mbps. One of the most practical ways to measure your actual Internet speed can be found on www.speedtest.net. To be honest, an average of 14Mbps real download speed is still excellent. No complaint whatsoever here; you just have to know it’s not 24Mbps! The third element is about the usual difference between download and upload. A reminder: ADSL is acronym for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, where asymmetric precisely means that download speed is different from upload speed, therefore by definition. Download is when you browse the web, watch video online, receive e-mail and attachments, or literally download software or other digital contents. Upload is when you send e-mails and attachments or upload documents to the cloud. Whereas it is understood that download speed does not have to be as high as that of uploading, the difference here is rather big: The new 24Mbps ADSL subscription is keeping upload at about 1Mb or even less sometimes. A couple of years ago I would have said it is alright. But today with the push to use the cloud, this could prove to be a serious limitation. Indeed, using the cloud means uploading almost as much as downloading. So mainly because of the cloud, the “asymmetric” character of ADSL may be a hindrance. Unless the telecoms can bring up upload speed a bit closer to that of download speed, to make is at least 50% of it. The last element of temperament I call the syndrome of the “sports car driving in Shmeisani, in rush hour”. What’s the use of superfast car if everything around you is moving at snail’s pace? In a similar manner, once your download speed is anything above 12Mbps, chances are that “you” will be faster than what many websites can achieve. In other words, these websites will be, or will get slower than your own ADSL. Just like streets, websites can experience rush hours too. It just depends on the number of people accessing them at any given time. If for example you are downloading a big piece of software, or a large MP3 music file, the actual download speed is that of the slowest between your own ADSL and that of the website you are accessing. Here again there’s nothing to do, except to be aware of that fact. In summary? Thank you very much dear ISP for 24Mbps subscriptions, it’s really appreciated, but please can you also allow for a more generous monthly download quota, and for higher upload speed?