Tools To Determine If Your Bandwidth Is Being Throttled

As a former start-up VoIP service provider, I'm glad there are a couple of 800 pound gorillas in our court as well, at least for now:

http://www.measurementlab.net/measurement-lab-tools

If anyone reading this works at a second tier VoIP network, make sure you pass this link along to your tech staff.

It's still to early to tell if in the long run the major software as a service providers like Google will end up being on the side of a tiered Internet or continue to defend an open Internet. There are points of benefit for them on both sides. I know most of you know the reasons why Google has a defensive stance for a free Internet, but on the flip side, for Google to sign QoS contracts and co-locate with all the major tier-1 providers could potentially be a minor tax write off, for a start-up with a new brilliant method for sorting search results, it could be a huge hurdle for going to market and making a real business based on revenue instead of acquisition.