This is a really good article explaining why ISP’s and operators most of the times don’t think about the consequences of packet inspection (DPI). False positives are very bad for business.
My view is that a lot of the more onerous terms-of-service for broadband (fixed or wireless), or heavy-handed traffic shaping, are going to evaporate under commercial & PR pressure over the next year or so. And I’m expecting quite a lot of Comcast-type attempts to be outed by people monitoring traffic flows and reverse-engineering what’s causing problems.
As I’ve said before – I can’t get especially exercised about Net Neutrality. Because anyone stupid enough to block benign traffic (even if they don’t like it for commercial reasons) is going to heavily burnt. I think the market will understand providers wanting to stop network integrity being threatened – but it will show zero tolerance for vindictive or accidental ‘collateral damage’.
