ominae
join:2003-05-11
Columbus, OH | reply to insomniac84
Re: Flate rate is also easier to forcast More money is exactly why they would move to it.
If metered billing was necessary for their survival, all an ISP would have to do is show numbers proving it. They could put out details showing how they spend so much for bandwidth, so much for network maintenance, so much on labor costs and so on. No one has done so because it isn't true. The numbers on their 10-K forms prove it.
It's greed at it's worst. It's not enough to make a reasonable profit anymore, everyone is trying to impress the shareholders by showing a bigger gain quarter after quarter. They try to monetize everything. It's why they sell your personal info and browsing habits. Like I want you to "share" my info with "select" (read: anyone who can write a check) partners to offer me new and exciting products and services?
It's why ISP's have an illogical fear of being just an ISP. It's a sick cycle. You get a company who does one thing well and makes a decent profit doing it. Then they get greedy and decide they want to "diversify" and buy into different businesses which they think makes sense. This continues until they start losing money quarter after quarter. They eventually spin off or sell the failed businesses, putting out a press release saying it will allow them to "focus on our core business", which is where the focus should have been from day one. Meanwhile the customer has to pay for their mistakes in the form of higher bills (special thanks to Time Warner for allowing me to subsidize the money pit known as AOL). |
