Tiscali: BBC iPlayer comments 'inflamatory'

Leading internet service provider Tiscali has responded to comments from the BBC's technology chief about how to handle the traffic created by iPlayer.

The success of the corporation's video on demand service, which formally launched at Christmas, has - according to ISPs - put a significant extra load on the UK's data networks.

Ashley Highfield, the corporation's director of future media and technology, last week made a wide range of suggestions about how the issue could be addressed, of which the most controversial was that the BBC could "name and shame" ISPs that tried to limit iPlayer use.

"Content providers, if they find their content being specifically squeezed, shaped, or capped, could start to indicate on their sites which ISPs their content works best on (and which to avoid)," he wrote on the BBC internet blog. "I hope it doesn't come to this, as I think we (the BBC and the ISPs) are currently working better together than ever."

Highfield also rejected the idea, suggested by some in the industry, that the BBC should have to pay for its content to be transferred, while talking up the continued provision of unlimited broadband access. "They (ISPs) are already charging their customers for broadband to receive any content they want," he said.

Until now service providers have remained largely silent on the matter, supporting Highfield's assertion they are working closely and amicably together.

Today however, Simon Gunter, Tiscali's head of strategy, gave a clear response to BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

It was "a bit rich that a publicly-funded organisation is telling a commercial body how to run its business", he said. "The question is about whether we invest in extra capacity or go to the consumer and ask them to pay a BBC tax.

"Inflammatory comments about blacklisting ISPs do not help. There seems to be a lack of understanding about how networks are built. Either we are not explaining it properly or it is falling on deaf ears."

Highfield insisted the growth was "manageable". He said: "We estimate that currently the iPlayer is having between 3-5% impact on the network."