The local version of voyeuristic television show Big Brother has proven more entertaining that we could ever have imagined.
There has been drama, there has been both open and covert infighting and manoeuvring as alliances form and dissolve in the blink of an eye as each seeks an advantage over the rest. There may even have been tears following clandestine dalliances. And there is still 103 days to go.
As usual, the real action is behind the scenes, and in this case it is the interaction between Internet service providers that has us engrossed.
Phillip de Wet, news editor, ITWeb
Make no mistake, the 24-hour television coverage of 12 suckers living in close confines is boring enough to drive a government bureaucrat batty. After all, watching experimental rats in a cage is only fun if you can poke sharp objects at them, and even the most dedicated ITWeb staffer has been unable to face more than 20 minutes of channel 37 on DSTV.
As usual, the real action is behind the scenes, and in this case it is the interaction between Internet service providers that has us engrossed.
Soap opera plot
It started out innocently enough, with a tie-up between the TV show and a Web site by the same name. Internationally the real success of the show has been the Internet component, which allows those who become addicted to the drama to interact online.
There was a foretaste of things to come as the show almost had a run-in with the owners of the domain name they coveted, bigbrother.co.za. That little incident was handled with civility, however, and did little to satisfy our base desire for a soap opera plot.
That changed soon enough. As users started tuning into the official Big Brother Web site on Sunday, they ran into all kinds of problems. Higher than expected demand led to the predictable bandwidth congestion, which left many fuming at bad response times. But what got the ISPs bickering so delightfully was the promised live video feeds that can be accessed on the site.
Turns out South African ISPs have had little occasion to dabble in multicasting, the method Big Brother chose to disseminate the feeds. Few had gone to the trouble, and apparently the considerable expense, of enabling multicasting on their networks, so the feeds remained inaccessible to just about everyone but M-Web subscribers.
A curious lack of forethought left many ISPs fielding calls from irate customers demanding to know why they could not watch the shower camera online. Some providers say it was a flood, some say a trickle, but it seems most had to deal with complaints.
Conspiracy theory
Ah, but here comes the first twist in the tale. Was it a lack of planning? M-Web says it approached all the first-tier ISPs in the country and warned them of the use of multicasting, the probable demand there would be from their customers, and even offered to help them in setting up their equipment. Those approached apparently just turned up their noses at the offer, with mumblings of "who needs it" being heard.
Yet the ISPs claim otherwise. At least one says it did take notice, did take the correct steps, does indeed have multicasting available, and please would M-Web explain why it is now making everyone else out to be the bad guys?
Then there is the conspiracy theory. M-Web, incidentally part of the same group as M-Net, is responsible for the Web site. M-Web has a history and stated policy of keeping its content close to its chest, treating it as value-added services to its dial-up customers. So is this a case of cutting off your nose to spite Absa Freemail?
The last element of the mix is the little guy struggling against all odds and then getting his fingers trampled by the big guys. "Why were we not approached and told of this impeding disaster?" wailed the smaller ISPs. "Since when does size matter, and what is so special about first-tier ISPs?"
All of which leaves the audience biting its nails as it wonders: is this a marketing ploy by M-Web? Are the other ISPs just penny-pinchers? Who is the bad guy?
There is also one serious question raised by all this. The ISP industry in SA has always been a close-knit fraternity, despite fierce competition. Maybe that is simply because the ISPs have always had a common enemy - Telkom, the great withholder of bandwidth and the virtual deity they all love to hate. But now the future holds some competition to Telkom, and the inevitable suggestion is that things will go smoother with the great monopoly under threat. So will the ISPs now turn on one another, like a pack of wild animals in the same cage with the influence of their human handler removed?
The future promises more action.
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