openuniverse.se (Telenor) has package prioritization exactly the way you don't want it

openuniverse.se (Telenor) is the internet service provider of Uppsalahem (Public housing) in Eriksberg, Uppsala, Sweden.

openuniverse.se (Telenor) allows you to pay extra for lots of different "kinds" of internet.

What I describe here is the internet connection included in the rent (against a rent increase of 70 SEK (10 USD)) (0.5 Megabit)

One of the most central parts with TCP (internet) is that if there are multiple transactions then each transaction gets a "democratic" share of the bandwidth. And these shares should feel like individual cables, only with lower bandwidth.

Ex: if there is a cable with the bandwidth of 10 Megabit, then two persons / processes / data transactions shall experience that they have access to an own cable with 10 / 2 = 5 Megabit. If a third process starts then all the processes shall experience that they have an own cable of 10 / 3 ≈ 3.333 Megabit.

The way TCP does this, is that if there is too many packages, then it is the large packages that most likely are thrown out (and must be resent). This makes very much sense because the large packages are most likely downloads (stuff that takes a long time anyway), and small packages is about real-time-applications like internet telephony or even normal web-surfing (web-surfing: stuff that mostly does not create any traffic at all, but when you do click on a link, you want the new page to load fast.)

openuniverse.se (Telenor) does the prioritizing the totally opposite way and gives priority to large packages and lets the small packages wait. This means that if you have a ongoing download, then processes that sends small packages gets to starve.

Examples:

• If you have a ssh connection and send a single byte (really small package) it takes like 4-5 seconds.
• To open a web-page which typically starts with a html page, which in turn loads other files like images, style-sheets, javascript... In normal case (0.5 Megabit) it takes 2-3 seconds. With a download going on, it takes more like a minute.

Small price comparison here in Uppsala (to shed light on whether Uppsalahem really got the best deal)

I know other housing societies in Uppsala who got 10 Megabit for a rent increase of 70 SEK (10 USD) (installed like around 2010 I think)

In Eriksberg we got 0.5 Megabit for an rent increase of 70 SEK (with the described (screwed up) package prioritization).