I don't typically post on Facebook but i'm mad so here's a nerd essay on Optus and the Internet in Australia because i'm sick of my net being below 95% of the rest of the world in a first world country. It might interest you to know that most of the world right now pay half the money we do on the same internet speeds, and that we have the worst internet speed to internet cost ratio in the first world. Although this is a joke and an issue. The main issue right now is throttling.

Internet throttling is the practice of limiting the rate of bandwidth a server can intake at one time, in general this is used so a server doesn't overload it's capacity. You may of heard of net neutrality recently in the news as many large scale ISPs have been trying to get it dissolved because if it were they could decide what you get to see, force you to pay for websites and outright block you from them. Think of internet as water, someone can charge you for water, but once you have bought it they cannot charge you depending on what you do with it once you buy it you're allowed to use it as you wish and they can't (for example) force you to only drink it from their brand of mug. The water is internet. Someone can charge you for internet, but what you do with it is up to you and out of their hands. This is the main staple of net neutrality, although it has other rules within it about how internet is used and sold.

Back to the water example: If someone sells you water it's up to you what you do with it. They aren't allowed to force you to use 90% of your water on your garden, and then only 10% of the rest on dishes, drinking etc. You bought the water and you should be able to do what you want with it, what if you don't even keep a garden? 90% of your water is now useless to you. But with internet this is being done everyday, and yes it is illegal. Optus (and other ISPs) decide where your bandwidth goes against your permission and the law and this is why your net is slow.

Another easy to understand example would be imagine Optus as your gardener, you pay them to go and water your plants everyday and make sure they grow and are kept healthy. Under the agreement you made with Optus they are to keep all your plants alive, Optus looks at all your plants and see the strawberries as their favorite. So from now on they give most of the water, care & the quality soil to the strawberries as every other plant just barely clings onto life. You would fire Optus as your gardener, right? i mean you're paying them to take care of your garden and they only really take care of one plant and totally neglect every other part of your garden. Well this is Optus' connection with Netflix.

Netflix is a pretty cool service. They offer a subscription fee for a good array of movies and on some Optus plans you can watch Netflix for free, and without any hit to your data limit. Well that's pretty awesome, and i can tell you from experience i don't think I've ever experienced Netflix lagging from internet issues on Optus! But wait how can that be real? Most Australians can attest to having slow internet as we have an outdated system bringing us our net, so how can we stream full high definition movies, with no internet hit for hours at a time with no lag? and more so how can we do this whilst at the same time in the background i can't load a jpeg on google images? This is because Optus throttle bandwidth to Netflix for their financial gain.

You see Optus partner with Netflix and then throttle all their bandwidth to the site, this brings millions of people to Netflix and Optus are able to keep offering free data usage free Netflix to anyone who wants to sign up, whilst anyone else trying to watch a Youtube video, load a webpage, download or upload etc are completely left in the dust because it doesn't make Optus as much money as it would if they obeyed the law. If you go to twitter and complain they are throttling your internet they will lie to you and say that do no such thing, because if they were open about it they would be inline for a lawsuit. If you want proof that Netflix is throttled next time you are lagging on Optus (or another Netflix associated provider) try out Netflix and see if you can stream movies, then go back to the YouTube video that wont load on the lowest quality and wonder how in the hell ISPs are allowed to screw us like this even when there are specific laws in place supposed to stop them.