Nick
Purveyor of common sense
Premium,VIP,MVM
join:2000-10-29
Smithtown, NY
clubs:
| reply to AnonProxy
Re: Unlimited...
said by AnonProxy  :I would disagree, unlimited access is unlimited use. If you cap someones ability to download you are effectively stopping their use of the Internet. Actually, I'll disagree with your disagreement. Nobody is stopping your ability to download/upload content. They are simply reducing your ability to do so by creating a virtual "speed limit".
Perhaps a poor analogy, but I will try anyway. You buy a german sports car. The car itself has an electronic limiter preventing you from going over 130 mph even though if the limiter is removed you can go 150mph. Nobody complains about that. Similarly, the whole speed limit thing. Posted speed limit is 55mph around me, yet people go 70 and don't get pulled over. Some people choose to push their limits and go 80 and they DO get pulled over. Internet companies are really no different, they don't say "you can download 30 gigs a month...and we'll really let you slide at 40..but once you hit 50 we shut off your internet" they say you have unlimited access (which is true) and they try to throttle people who are significantly out of the bell curve.
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Stupidity, like hydrogen, is one of the basic building blocks of the Universe.
Gallery * Life * Work |
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operagost
join:1999-08-02
Spring City, PA
| Number 1, you're talking about VOLUME and not SPEED. If we were using a closer analogy, they would throttle your connection speed down as you neared the limit. In addition, on highways we have speed limit signs so you always know what speed is allowed. ISPs would rather let the fiction of unlimited internet continue to encourage sales while setting secret limits. |
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AnonProxy
Proxy of Anon
Premium
join:2001-05-12
ß
| reply to Nick
There are two issues,
1. Pure caps...meaning that at x GB of data you are shut off for the month. That's not speed, that's a cap and that is NOT unlimited.
2. Throttling...certainly an issue but not the same as a cap.
To that end cutting speed from your pure maximum speed is an ACCESS issue...to that end if I pay for 10MB down, it's not unlimited but it is advertised a price for a speed, they should not cut my speed based on what I download. |
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Nick
Purveyor of common sense
Premium,VIP,MVM
join:2000-10-29
Smithtown, NY
clubs:
| Ok, we need to clarify something...
Cable companies (while often do,) try not to piss off their customers. Lost customers = Lost Revenue
Cable companies will try not suspend your service which you equate to capping. Capping is "reducing capacity" for you to abuse the infrastructure and hinder other people's service. While before you could download at 10 megabits per second, they throttle you to half a megabit. This is not "denying you access", it's forcefully modifying your behavior in such a way that other paying customers are not affected.
Each Cable company does it differently, some will send you a warning letter saying you have been marked as using exceedingly large amounts of data. Others will throttle you as a warning. Eventually if you are considered as a repeat offender they cut you off. In the end Cable is not a right, it's not written into the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, it's a product you buy just like buying a happy meal at McDonalds, it's a business that must be profitable for it to be around.
As an excersize, locate a local place that allows you to refill your soda for free when you buy it at the place. Bring a large container with you and fill it up with your free soda and see how fast you get thrown out for abusing something you paid for.
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Stupidity, like hydrogen, is one of the basic building blocks of the Universe.
Gallery * Life * Work |
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axus
join:2001-06-18
Washington, DC
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to operagost
Yeah, a better analogy would be the Department of Transportation limiting the number of miles you can drive in a month, because when people drive too much they have to build more roads and there's a lot of traffic.
People put up with traffic, speed limits, and state taxes, but we're not going to accept road mileage limits. What ISPs should do is continue upgrading at the pace their revenue can afford, and let people be limited by the heavy traffic. |
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batterup
I Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ
clubs:
·Verizon Online DSL
| said by axus :Yeah, a better analogy would be the Department of Transportation limiting the number of miles you can drive in a month, because when people drive too much they have to build more roads and there's a lot of traffic. People put up with traffic, speed limits, and state taxes, but we're not going to accept road mileage limits. What ISPs should do is continue upgrading at the pace their revenue can afford, and let people be limited by the heavy traffic. The more miles one drives the more gas one uses and the more tax one pays. One pays for every mile. |
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js1
@swbell.net
| reply to Nick
Digital packets aren't the same as a physical commodity like soda. The problem is politicans and regulators now consider telcos as such, as traditional free market companies, when really internet access should be a utility. If it isn't unlimited, they shouldn't advertise it as such.
That would be like if I had an unlimited long-distance phone service, but then because I was using it too much (in the opinion of someone at the company), they decided to limit the areas I could call to. |
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