Remember Net Neutrality and the arguments that the concerns were overrated?

[wraith808]

Cox Communications is rolling out a new Elite Gamer ‘fast lane’ internet connection

Who wants to pay more for your internet connection to make sure you can play games on it? Because that’s what Cox Communications is now offering with its Elite Gamer package, an extra $15 charge to ensure that your online game experience has minimal lag and ping. You know, exactly the sort of “fast lane” connection that net neutrality rules prevented and that various companies (including Cox) assured people wouldn’t be created.

More at https://massivelyop.com/2019/04/26/cox-communications-is-rolling-out-a-new-elite-gamer-fast-lane-internet-connection/

[rgdot]

100% people's fault, not the politicians and those who they appoint. On paper at least it is a blessing in disguise that pretty much 75%+ of current politicians worldwide DIDNT hide their true faces before getting elected, that percentage was much lower in previous generations. US in particular everybody knew how voting for each candidate would affect every thing from tech policy to environment policy etc. etc.

Hopefully I am not causing a basement (sorry mouser et al  ) thread but Net Neutrality is very much a political issue, denying this is almost as bad as letting Net Neutrality die.

[wraith808]

I did find a more balanced view of it in an article on Ars.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/04/cox-internet-now-charges-15-extra-for-faster-access-to-online-game-servers/

Relevant part:

"This service does not increase the speed of any traffic, nor prioritize gaming traffic ahead of other traffic on our network," a Cox spokesperson told Ars. "Cox Elite Gamer solves a problem with deficiencies in the public Internet, not our network. No customer's experience is degraded as a result of any customers purchasing Cox Elite Gamer service as an add-on to their Internet service... the Cox Elite Gamer service selects an optimized Internet path with each gaming session initiated by the customers."

You apparently install software on a Windows PC, and it reroutes your traffic.  It's a rebranded version of  wtfast (https://www.wtfast.com/), snake oil by another name.  So not a net neutrality issue, it appears.  But who's to say if there are other reasons around this related to probing and obscurement?