 kpfx
join:2005-10-28
San Antonio, TX
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| Thoughts on Metered Billing As services such as TV, Phone, and Internet (and soon video gaming, movie rentals, etc) are turning into nothing more than data streams, its obvious things will be changing soon. I know Metered billing is not a popular topic, and I'm adamantly against all the current proposals, ideas, and cost metrics I've seen these accounting and marketing guys have thrown out there because I think they got blinded by $$....
But.... just brainstorming here. I really don't think metered billing would be all that bad if priced and structured correctly.
As it is right now all my utilities are metered. Electricity, water, gas, and even sewage and trash are all billed as usage-based. Yet, if I do nothing but surf the internet for a whole month, I still pay for my TV and phone service regardless if I used it. Vise-versa on the Internet.... I may be gone on vacation for the entire month but still have that $100 bill due when I get back (and a $30 electric bill for that month too).
So.... with one camp screaming that Internet access should be a utility, why shouldn't it be billed like one? What if I was only paying $0.25 per gig on a 100 Mbps connection (or even 1,000 Mbps)? What if that cost per gig was even lower if I bundled my voice and TV services (and lets assume it even comes in on that one pipe)?
Just a thought. |
