said by T361 :Now the only thing I can't speculate is on...
- How can they afford unlimited 2-8AM usage windows.
-> Implying that rates are charged based on network use-times
-> Implying that that policy there is to reduce usage to free up congestion and to let everyone have 100% speeds
The rates Start pays are for 24/7 capacity. The amount of capacity they get is based on what they need for peak hours. Therefore, what Start pays for capacity is based on peak usage. Usage in off-peak periods, such as overnight,
basically doesn't cost them anything extra. They just have to be careful to not create a new peak in "free" periods.
said by T361 :-> 20Mbps Down @ 30 Days @ 6 Hours = 450GB/month
--> At least $100+ billed
- How can they afford unlimited upload
-> 10Mbps Up @ 30 Days @ 100% of the time = 3.24TB/month
--> At least $300+ billed
-> Implying that the incumbent ISPs don't charge for upload
--> Non-nonsensical, as they would give the same benefit to their customers
Similar to the overnight stuff...
The capacity they purchase from the incumbents is symmetrical. Same amount of upload capacity as download capacity. They're basically paying based on which is higher - upload
or download. So as long as the peak upload usage isn't coming close to the peak download usage, additional upload usage doesn't cost them anything extra.
Now, upload and overnight usage isn't likely
quite free to Start - but it should be in the area of pennies on the dollar (or rather, pennies on the hundreds or thousands of dollars) that they'd be paying Rogers/Bell/Cogeco for peak-period download usage .