Charging by the Byte to Curb Internet Traffic

Charging by the Byte to Curb Internet Traffic

www.nytimes.com

For years, both kinds of Web surfers have paid the same price for access. But now three of the country’s largest Internet service providers are threatening to clamp down on their most active subscribers by placing monthly limits on their online activity.

Even if the caps are far above the average users’ consumption, their mere existence could cause users to reduce their time online. Just ask people who carefully monitor their monthly allotments of cellphone minutes and text messages.

(visit the link for the full news article)

AT&T, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable.

These companies actually think that they can gain a greater profit by limiting internet usage. In reality, we all know that the customers would just quit and go to another provider with unlimited bandwidth even if they don't use it all up.

www.nytimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by die_another_day


Yes these old-fashioned toad companies love the economy of scarcity. People should pay more if they use more, big fish should be taxed more because they occupy more water...these parasitical middlemen companies wish to exert one last gasp of their divine right of pricing because they sense a future in which middlemen of their ilk will only barely have a market niche if they are small, quiet, cheap, boutique, and nice. They ought to dress up like SUVs and have honking pep rallies.

reply to post by die_another_day


im glad you informed me of this because i use time warner. sucks for me though cause ive had a good experince with them. oh well guess i can give my cash to someone else until the new company decides to start screwing over the little man..

I use time warner for my cable usage...but I have NO OTHER provider..might be time for more underhanded methods...

Baby steps.. thats how the N.W.O progress, in baby steps
so that we grow with them , all the way to our graves....


baby steps

I hope they don't crack down by introducing new strict regulations making this the only way internet service providers charge customers. Then California might just have to break away and everyone will be headin' to Californi'... they have some real good internet out there.

hey y'all

well in a other thread i was telling some guy how good my country really was. But now......

I pay 40 euros a month for a 15gb downstream and 5gb upstream passing by me at 8mb/sec

every provider uphere in belgium charges bigtime for internet acces.

lets hope for u guys they won't follow the belgian example. I always was thinking that one our providers would get to their sences but now it seems we al gonna be in the same boat one day .....

A sad day for the webcommunity

I would never consider an internet provider that would set limits on my transfers. Here in UK we have even free internet (TalkTlak) and it comes as a bonus to the phone-line ,but i never used cos it is a 40GB limit and I do not like that

reply to post by Spartannic


i think im paying $45usd a month for 10meg. it is faster than i need but i dont mind paying a little more cause i dont have to wait for jack poo on the web. but i do hope they dont go up like the op states ill need another job just to post here...

Traffic limits imposed today will amount to a HUGE bill tomorrow. Providers know what kind of a change in content is coming - but most customers don't realize it.


Found this comment nested in the automotive section of the Toronto Star a while back:

Now, as I watched Patrick pass Helio Castroneves with a little more than a lap to go and set sail for the checkered flag, I started thinking of a guy I know who’s well up the food chain at the CTV Television Network. Our kids play on the same baseball team and we compare notes at practices and games. [snip]

So I saw him at the baseball diamond yesterday morning and told him about watching Danica Patrick win the race in Japan via streaming video because TSN didn’t have it on and he said that I haven’t seen anything yet.

"Within two years, every 42-inch, wide-screen, plasma TV on the market will be in high-definition and Internet compatible, which means you won’t be watching your race on a 4-inch-by 4-inch screen on a desk in your home office but on a screen the size of the wall in your family room.

"And you probably won’t be changing channels much longer, either. Just about everything you watch will start with the letters ‘www.’ "

Those of you who are getting sucked into paying by the byte - how much do you think you will be paying for content when this comes to pass? Streaming (legally) an hour's worth of high def video from network TV is going to cost big. That's where the tech is heading, and the networks know it (and are apparently prepared for it). The providers also know it, and are counting on the average consumer not knowing it.

Back when I used to connect on a 2400bps dial up modem, a limit of 40 Gig/month would have seemed laughable. Likewise at 14400 or 28800. I'd probably have accepted a limit back then, not knowing that 10 years down the road I'd have the content I have today. What's coming tomorrow?