CenturyLink is Imposing Usage Caps → Re: I figured

"How much are they making?"

I would say this move would help their bottom line overall, as it will scare users into wondering if it's ok to "click on that next Netflix/Youtube" video, or possibly face letters inquiring about usage and upgrade requests from their ISP(that alone would probably allow capacity upgrades to be postponed). I pay for 40/5mb service with CL, and for what I pay for and use each month, I don't want a "cap hanging over my head". Although I am not a "problem user", and may have hit 250Gb in a month once in a my time with this account(maybe), I just do not like the idea of throttling users or pushing users to upgrade accounts, when the ISP thinks* your using too much bandwidth - they are writing their own rules/speed limits. That being said, their will always be some users(losers) that leave bit torrents and other file shares open all month long and rack up crazy outgoing bandwidth, and I would appreciate it if those users were singled out by the ISP for this abuse and sent letters or "informed that excessive usage can lead to account termination", but leave the majority of us alone, and don't hold these caps over our heads. At the end of the day though, I feel that we are going backwards in our pursuit of technology, and think that limiting people to the amount of content, or their perception of the amount of content that can reach them monthly, is just wrong. In a world where we compete with each other on an intellectual basis, limiting a users access to rich content, is a sin.

With most connections having such pitiful upload capacity in the US excessive torrenting isn't even possible.

I get the subjective reasons for why you don't like caps. I'm looking for some facts regarding how much these caps increase revenue or stall growth which thereby stretches capex upgrade cycles.

Right now my gut tells me wire line caps aren't as much about a revenue play as protecting other revenue streams. Granted, a definition is needed to gauge outliers but right now they don't seem to be monetizing like wireless. Maybe that's because they don't have good meters, yet, but rather than speculate, I was wondering if anyone has put this in numbers.

It's perfectly possible. You get 5 users who actually have decent upload bandwidth, and the rest of them sponge off of them and each other. Torrenting worked fine back when 5/384 was the best they had.

Just because you can't grab a finished torrent in under 10 minutes doesn't mean it's not possible... You just gotta have patience!

In the history of the Internet, there was no such thing for capping or throttling and enough with the 'growing users' as an excuse. Because as much as users grow, technology grows in order to support the load in their servers from users at full bandwidth. Browsing or Torrenting, ISP's need to mind their own business since it is just the service their giving and not regulating our usage, much less the neighbor ranting others habits and comparing their usages to others. If ISP's can't provide the support like they supposedly say which I doubt, then why not drop their speeds? Downgrade their service enough so that they could estimate a stable service if such amount of users connect at full load without problem. And now regular users are forced to upgrade to "business" accounts for true ethical unlimited service all because the family easily surpasses the 250GB cap from Netflixing, Youtubing and Gaming. Call this corrupt business practices for profit, control or greed.

A lot has happened since the advent of the Internet. How exactly to you think providers continue to provide as demand grows and grows? Magic? And how is expanding a network and infrastructure to meet demand an "excuse" exactly? Yes, providers are trying to keep pace with customer demand--which is skyrocketing, by the way--and maintaining an ever-growing infrastructure to meet that demand costs....wait for it.....lots of money. Megabucks. Providers also base their rates/plans/caps around the "average" usage by a typical family. So, if your usage is far above that average, guess what....you're going to be paying more. And how does downgrading your internet service help you exactly? You want slower throughput at home--just so that you don't have to pay for a higher data cap?

I don't like it much either, but the days of the "all you can eat buffet" of unlimited internet access plans will soon be a thing of the past, and customers are actually gonna' be faced with paying for what they use. Like a car rental. Like a hotel stay. Like your electric bill, monthly wireless plan minutes....and pretty much everything else.That's actually a good summary of pretty much any capitalistic society. Capping usage to control costs and ensure equal service for all customers is not corrupt; it's called "doing business". If a company either imposes an unrealistic cap or raises their rates so that they are no longer competitive, then the market will adjust, they will lose customers and either go out of business or adjust their cap/rates again. And yes...it's ALL about greed; that's how companies makes money.