There's no peer-to-peer file sharing free-for-all on TeliaSonera's LTE network as the operator puts its policy control smarts to work

Michelle Donegan

October 11, 2010

2 Min Read
TeliaSonera Limits P2P Over LTE

Telia Company may have ushered in the next generation of mobile broadband technology with its world-first Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks in Sweden and Norway, but the operator sets the same limits for peer-to-peer file sharing traffic on the new 4G network as it does on its 3G network.

Even with the increased capacity of LTE -- between 20 Mbit/s and 80 Mbit/s downlink, and 10 Mbit/s and 15 Mbit/s on the uplink, according to TeliaSonera -- the operator has not changed its traffic management policy regarding P2P file sharing on its new mobile network. (See TeliaSonera First to Go Live With LTE and Data Surge Fuels Policy Control Boom.)

"We've seen some users use [the LTE network] for P2P, and that type of usage we're limiting during peak hours," said Lars Klasson, TeliaSonera CTO of mobility services in an interview with Light Reading Mobile. "We limit the number of sessions and the speed of the sessions."

Klasson is quick to point out that the operator does not employ this policy control on what he calls "normal" content sharing, which is more common among 4G customers than among 3G users. "Uploading content, that's not a problem," said Klasson. "That's not the issue."

Rather, the problem is with "sharing movies and doing that on a more professional basis -- say, 10 sessions with a lot of friends," explained Klasson. "That can use all the 100 Mbit/s in one sector and can occupy that for 24 hours. And that's not fair."

For TeliaSonera, the name of the traffic management game is quality. The operator wants the best quality network for all its users, explained Klasson. And that's why TeliaSonera applies the same traffic management rules for file sharing to its new LTE network as it does to its 3G network. (See TeliaSonera Shares Verizon's LTE Tablet Desire .)

Enforcing the data cap
But it's not just P2P file sharing that gets the same traffic management treatment on LTE and 3G connections: The operator also applies the same policy control rules to manage data usage caps across its LTE and 3G subscriber bases. (See TeliaSonera Tips Hat to Mobile Data Caps, TeliaSonera Develops New Mobile Data Model, and TeliaSonera Prices First LTE Offer.)

TeliaSonera offers several different LTE service plans that come with monthly data usage caps of up to 10 Gbytes, 20 Gbytes, or 30 Gbytes. When TeliaSonera customers reach their monthly data limit they are offered a chance to top up and add more to their data allowance. If a customer doesn't buy more data, then his or her data service is slowed down to around 128 Kbit/s. (See TeliaSonera Blazes LTE Trail of Tiers .)

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Light Reading Mobile

About the Author(s)

Michelle Donegan

Michelle Donegan is an independent technology writer who has covered the communications industry for the last 20 years on both sides of the Pond. Her career began in Chicago in 1993 when Telephony magazine launched an international title, aptly named Global Telephony. Since then, she has upped sticks (as they say) to the UK and has written for various publications including Communications Week International, Total Telecom and, most recently, Light Reading.  

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