davoice
join:2000-08-12
Saxapahaw, NC
 ·Comporium
| reply to Core0000
Re: That's not suprising
Agreed... I pay more for real value that gives me something more than I have now.
I just paid $30 for the luxury of 4" more legroom on an already reasonably roomy JetBlue flight because I was flying cross country and wanted the extra room to cross my legs.
Most consumers don't mind paying for things that give them a perceived return on their money. (Hello - casinos and bottled water.)
What does get us all bent out of shape is being charged more for the same thing we're already getting. Or even worse being charged more for less than we're already getting.
With caps that's exactly where we are headed - higher bills for less service.
If they're going to go metered or capped, what I would rather see is a fully metered system like we have with most public utilities (water, power, etc.). The cablecos are avoiding that like the plague because it means 1) they would be admitting they have a commodity product, 2) many of their customers would actually see lower bills, and 3) the cablecos would actually have to deploy audited and certified measuring systems like we have w/ power and gas meters today.
I think it would be reasonable to pay a $5/mo base connection charge and then have full access to use the available bits as I see fit. They can then bill me by the GB just like my power company bills me by the kW. If I don't use it, it only costs me $5. If I blow the connection up with Bittorrent traffic, I get a bill commensurate to my usage.
The carriers are loathe to go down that road because it means they will have given into being labeled as dumb pipes.
}Davoice |
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utahluge
join:2004-10-14
Draper, UT
 ·Comcast
| said by davoice  :.....I think it would be reasonable to pay a $5/mo base connection charge and then have full access to use the available bits as I see fit. They can then bill me by the GB just like my power company bills me by the kW. If I don't use it, it only costs me $5..... You people kill me!!! Don't you get it? Internet is NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT like a power or gas bill!! Other people from around the world CANNOT surge your power line or use up your gas line! With your internet connection ANYONE FROM AROUND THE WORLD CAN send you unwanted packets of data and USE your connection. What does that mean? YOU PAY for packets you didn't want, and probably don't even know about (blocked by router/firewall).
Get it through your heads people! Internet is NOT the same usage as a utility and CANNOT be billed as such!
Bill-by-the-byte will destroy the internet. Way to go ComCRAP, you just put yourself out of business! |
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Matt
Gone playing Dragon Age Origins
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| People can tap your power line or attach to your water spigot. So yes, it is similar.
It's also pretty easy for a utility to see if someone is flooding you with bogus traffic, so I don't think that is a valid argument.
--
Linux Haters Unite! |
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utahluge
join:2004-10-14
Draper, UT
·Comcast
1 edit | What do you mean utility?
Your talking about the internet providers?
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
If they were a utility, we wouldn't be having this discussion, let alone the whole news article.
It sure is a lot harder for someone to tap my electricity or my water spigot. For starters, they would have to be my neighbor. Thats one (maybe two) people you have to deal with. And if they really are stealing from you, you have bigger problems to deal with. Edit: Set up a camera; problem solved and your bill stays as it should. Sorry, not the same.
On the other hand, if you make someone pissed off playing your favorite video game or your work competition uses ComCRAP business cable they could write a nice little virus to generate fake traffic to your network. It would be coming from everywhere at random intervals and to the ISP it would only look like an increase of traffic; not a direct attack (by attack I mean by increasing your bill to strain your pocketbook/company finances; not a computer attack/hack/exploit). |
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operagost
join:1999-08-02
Spring City, PA | reply to utahluge
That's funny, because business-class service sometimes has usage charges. |
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