The Edmondton Journal has a story today that moved over Canada.com that describes the packet shaping and QoS enhancements that one of the cable operators in Canada (Shaw) is employing both as a revenue generator and competitive threat defence.
This is exactly why I feel many of the small operators will bite the dust over time and why cable companies are winning the battle for marketshare. But, it also means that other next generation services which require better QoS will excel and grow. The key question is will the cable operators (and naked DSL suppliers) toss in so many added costs to get future servcies that they don’t offer, that they end up pricing out the market.
That is a big concern and ties directly into the concept of carriers being neutral, not walled gardens suppliers of Internet access.