I wonder if publishing these metrics would go a long way to solving the problem. I know I'd must prefer to sign up with an ISP that doesn't throttle traffic I care about. I guess the big problem with that idea is that in many areas of North America there is very little competition in the ISP marketplace.
If the government was going to do something, I'd prefer it concentrate on increasing competition. Ideally, every home should have at least two or three options for high speed network access.
> If the government was going to do something, I'd prefer it concentrate on increasing competition.
Indeed, competition would help tremendously. Mandated wholesale access to the last mile delivery would be a great start (and something that used to be mandated for DSL from ILECs). I believe AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, etc can do a good job of connecting my house to their network, and deliver my data to their office; from there, I'd prefer to have someone else take responsibility.
Bonuses if new regulation in the same spirit covered all mediums (or at least more of them), and addressed unfair pricing practices by AT&T from the last time (direct to consumer offerings were priced significantly below the wholesale pricing, which was anti-competitive). Some parameters for dealing with congestion in the shared medium between the end user and the central office(s) might be appropriate too.
If the government was going to do something, I'd prefer it concentrate on increasing competition. Ideally, every home should have at least two or three options for high speed network access.