Demon Internet has launched a special 'gamers broadband package' that will prioritise traffic to games servers.
With controversy over the Google Verizon 'net neutrality' still raging, Demon Internet has offered a new package that puts gamers first.
Demon Internet head Matt Cantwell told the Daily Telegraph: "We know how important a good broadband connection is to the gaming community, and we are excited to be launching this product which has been designed to meet the specific needs of gamers.
Better gaming
"At Demon we appreciate that a better connection allows better gaming, and are confident that gamers will see the benefits that this service offers them."
The package is priced at £22 a month, with a 12 month contract and £30 a month, but some industry insiders have already asked if it's a gimmick rather than a particularly attractive package.
"There are already many things that customers can do to improve ping times on ADSL such as changing their line profile from InterLeaved to FastPath," said one anonymous industry source.
Video fail?
"However, prioritising gaming traffic at expense of other traffic could mean that customers with this kind of service may find things like video suffer as a result," they added.
Interestingly Virgin Media's tech guru Kevin Baughan talked to TechRadar about the potential for prioritising gaming traffic earlier in the summer, although its fibre optic network already gives the ISP a latency advantage.
"At the end of the day, on our architecture we can accelerate bits of the traffic if we need to or if we want to so you could prioritise this to make sure that the latency is absolutely superb," he said.
So, it remain to be seen if the improvement from prioritising gaming traffic will bring anything other than minor improvements, with the distance from the server still a major factor in ping.
But, should this offer tangible benefits it will certainly prove popular with gamers who have grown frustrated with their online performance.
From Telegraph
