Charging by the Byte to Curb Internet Traffic (1 Viewer)

[drobbins]

I think big brother Microsoft would also have something to say when XBox live memberships start dropping off.

I would say that we in the "heavy" user group. My son lives on XBox, I have a weather web page that gets updates every 10 seconds, and my daughter loves the instant messaging. In all we have 5 computers hooked up.

 

[ThomasC]

I don't think the weather web page and the IMs would add up to much. I think the XBox would be the main culprit.

 

[Bryan X]

Yeah, my son and I play a ton of Xbox Live. It would be interesting to see just how much bandwidth I actually use in a month.

You think all those people with unsecure wireless home networks would eventually wise-up and secure them? If not, they could be in for some shocking monthly bills.

 

[drobbins]

With the water and electric we have meters on the house so we can check usage and if the utility company's billing dept is honest. How can you meter byte usage at the house? It would have to be in between the router and the gateway.

 

[bobbyg2]

Even the XBox will be pretty low bandwidth-wise.

 

[Gabriel.H]

Yeah and the worst part is, not only are the charging us for going over bandwidth limits but they are still limiting our speeds with traffic shapping software.

 

[James St]

Unless you download free demos/videos or use the Marketplace for movie rentals. The demo for NCAA Football 09 came out today. 1.44GB.

 

[Todd Hochard]

That could be the other side of the coin. Just a small list of companies who will lean hard on ISPs over this-

1. Microsoft
2. Apple
3. Amazon
4. Netflix
5. Google/Youtube

Today's "average user" can easily rack up 50GB+/month in transfers. If you download a couple of movies a week from any one of the services and watch a few things on Youtube, you're going to bump up against that.

I'm also a little dismayed that the bandwidth that exists today was largely paid for by investors who have ZERO to show for their investment, when all the Telecoms went belly up. These pipes were sold for pennies, if that, on the dollar, and now these same companies are looking to further bilk the end user- who may well have been investors also- on a by the minute basis.

Like Edwin, I may end up choosing the original alternative to Internet- nothing.

 

[Brian^K]

Except that a finger has some utility, while alt.* newsgroups basically don't.

 

[Brian^K]

I think this is a misunderstanding. Rather, the companies offer service for a price, that price related to the value derived from the service.

 

[Brian^K]

Expect that charging by the byte will provide the foundation for removal of traffic shaping. It wouldn't be to the service providers' benefit to continue traffic shaping if they get additional revenue from heavy users.

 

[Brian^K]

How much money would they be willing to pay to ISPs to get them to not charge by the byte/not apply traffic shaping?

 

[LewB]

Some of my alt.* subs include groups for my car, crohns-colitis, verizon, motorola (made my cell phone), home repair, home-theater, lawn and garden, the Yankees, Quicken, Las Vegas, and porn.
Needless to say, I disagree.
Here's a quote from your link:
'Cuomo's office said it had "reviewed millions of pictures over several months" and found only "88 different newsgroups" containing child pornography.'

Why not just delete the 88 ?

 

[Brian^K]

Best approach is to get the legitimate newsgroups to follow the procedures and get themselves promoted to one of the legitimate realms.