moonpuppy
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Who do I send the bill to........
....when I have to download Microsoft's numerous patches and security updates so I don't get attacked by trojans and virii sent out by other users.
Also, how do I bill a website when it tries to open a pop-up window that uses my bandwith?
Answer those questions and we'll see if billing by the byte works. |
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rtw03
join:2002-11-10
Saint Paul, MN | Stupid
This whole idea is just stupid. The cost for the ISP to move that data is minimal, because they also are just paying for the pipe, not the byte. Why would a company that benefits from the growth of the internet want to slow that growth? |
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kaila
join:2000-10-11
Lincolnshire, IL
clubs: 
| Alright.........
Then charge us fairly for it. Many months ago it was reported that my old RoadRunner's bandwidth costs broke down to a nickel a gig, and that included routing and pipe charges. A dime, or even 20 cents per gig charged to the customer would seem fair ($10~20 per 100gig monthly).
I imagine that BT or whatever UK ISP is pushing this have similar bandwidth costs. If they don't, then then they should get out of the internet business now. It is a flawed business model destined for failure. |
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Pz_
join:2001-03-31
Brownsburg, IN
clubs:
| not both
If 60-80% of the bandwidth is used by a small fraction, then why would they want to bill by the byte? If they are charging for usage, then they cannot continue to bill for the flat amount they currently are, plus byte rates. So if they want to charge me for large downloads, then my monthly bill needs to be less. A lot less.
So I would guess that they would lose money on this deal since more people would be paying less. If in fact, the "bandwidth hogs" are costing them as much as they say. My guess is Comcast (for example) would keep my bill the same as it is, offer me some sort of free amount per month a la giganews, then charge me per byte over that.  |
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tmccann11
Who, Me?
Premium
join:2001-06-10
Bayonne, NJ
clubs: | Lower Rates
If they adopted this policy, I wonder if my OOL bill would be under 50 bucks. Highly doubtful. They'll probably charge a standard rate for say about 15 gigs a month, and then charge per Mb after. I wonder.
Tom |
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macmouse
Premium
join:2002-05-30
Saratoga, CA
| reply to kaila
Re: Alright.........
Thats right. Although its fun getting a free-ride, it really is the way it should be.
It will *only* work however when the prices are reasonable (as you have said). If done properly - this could be a big boom for broadband! Think about it -Now Granny can surf the net and only pay 10 bucks (or less) for broadband instead of $20+ whatever for dial-up. She has very limited usage, so she should pay "next to nothing" which would then be in direct competition with dial-up...
The only problem is, of course, they will *want* to charge ridiculous rates.
I recall seeing some over-charge limits in the past at like $10+ a gig! Thats highway robbery! I can get web hosting at $1 an gig transfer, which is on an fully redundant network with server clusters! If you pay for an monthly package, you can get even less...
I'd would also of course expect the quality to increase significantly. There certainly would be motivation for the ISP's to allow everyone to get top (throughput) speeds, instead of now where "you should be happy to get 1MB from an 1.5 line). Heck - They should be motivated to just remove caps entirely! Download at 10MB a sec and upload 1MB!
Now you can get the speed you want, when you need it, without paying through the noose for an fat pipe. Certainly would be nice to download the new linux ISO's. The speed is needed/wanted, but only for an short period of time.
Also, they would also have no reason to remove the "no servers" restriction, because we're paying for it!
They can still have an higher "price" on uploading.
Using your numbers.. 5 cents for download/gig and 20 cents for upload. I can live with that  .
Now "bandwidth hogs" will be treasured customers to please, not an scourge to be irradiated.
Once again though - this will *only* work if things are pricing is fair. If it is, then everything could come out as a whole lot better. |
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joebear29
join:2003-07-20
Alabaster, AL
| reply to moonpuppy
Re: Who do I send the bill to........
said by moonpuppy  :
....when I have to download Microsoft's numerous patches and security updates so I don't get attacked by trojans and virii sent out by other users.
You don't have to use Windows XP. You (would hypothetically) pay for bandwidth, if you needed that for Windows updates that is your problem, not the ISPs.
quote:
Also, how do I bill a website when it tries to open a pop-up window that uses my bandwith?
Why would you do that? You chose to visit their website, if they want to include a pop-up that is their business. You going to bill them for using extra graphics as well?
Besides, how much bandwidth could the pop-ups really use, especially if you had a blocker? Would it even be remotely material?
quote:
Answer those questions and we'll see if billing by the byte works.
Note I do not support billing by the byte, but your objections don't seem to hold much water.
Similar objections could have been made when dial-up ISPs charged by the minute, but that did not stop them. |
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lesopp
join:2001-06-27
Land O Lakes, FL | I see many things, I see plans within plans
Maybe this will stop the spam coming from .AU
But then again it is probably some MBA trying to make a name. None the less, this would never fly in a competitive market place. |
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yabos
join:2003-02-16
Ingersoll, ON | reply to Pz_
Re: not both
I don't think they'd ever do that. If they do what Sympatico did(and then stopped doing because everyone left), they will keep the price the same, and charge $8.00 per gig(WTF!). |
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BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Everett, MA
clubs:
 ·Comcast
| reply to Pz_
and what about if you don't use up them bytes ??? will it be like some cell phone plans and have them roll over to the next month ??
if so id be able to live with it if not i highly doubt this will be lucrative.
--
Need a web host try us at www.servercentral.net... message me directly and we can make you some killer deals. |
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joebear29
join:2003-07-20
Alabaster, AL
| reply to macmouse
Re: Alright.........
said by macmouse :
Thats right. Although its fun getting a free-ride, it really is the way it should be.
It will *only* work however when the prices are reasonable (as you have said). If done properly - this could be a big boom for broadband! Think about it -Now Granny can surf the net and only pay 10 bucks (or less) for broadband instead of $20+ whatever for dial-up. She has very limited usage, so she should pay "next to nothing" which would then be in direct competition with dial-up...
I think you are forgetting about the fixed cost. What they are, I dunno, but I suspect they are signifigant. |
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alfnoid
Premium,MVM
join:2002-02-18
| Byte caps flat rate or by the Byte?
If it comes down to the difference between these two I think that providers would be wise to present an affordable by the byte rate. It presents a better value to the mind of the consumer.
People mad at byte caps feel like they are paying and have Speed Caps so why are they limited to number of bytes?
Well by the byte would make more sense as you are getting everything you pay for that way.
It MUST be affordable though.
Like someone before me here said if cost is .05/Gig of traffic I personally wouldn't mind if they charged me six times that rate or $30/100Gigs of traffic each month.
Speeds to go along with this mess are a whole other story.
peace |
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Speedy8
Premium
join:2002-08-22
Alliance, OH
clubs: | AOL
It's like we are going back in time to the AOL "pay by the hour" pricing scheme, since in essence you are paying for time downloading. |
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JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD
clubs: |  Disclosure Please!
Whatever usage decisions are made, would it be asking too much to let subscribers know what they are? |
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Jason Levine
Premium
join:2001-07-13
USA
| reply to lesopp
Re: I see many things, I see plans within plans
What about the spammers who use trojan horse-infected PCs to send out their spam? If you didn't realize you had been trojaned, you might run up a huge charge before you clean off your PC. (Not sure if the bandwidth usage would apply to upstream as well as downstream.)
Would it apply to downloading e-mail as well? What about those tons of spam/virus e-mails that you don't want? Could you reverse the charge back to a friend who sends you a chain letter with a huge attachment and all of the previously forwarded text intact?
What about spyware infected PCs? Get infected and all of a sudden you're paying for some shady company to track your movements online?
A lot of questions need to be answered here.
--
-Jason Levine
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/
http://www.PCQandA.com/
http://www.urateit.com/ |
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JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD
clubs: |  Don't forget the pop-ups.
Remember the old dial-up trick of turning off images? |
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joebear29
join:2003-07-20
Alabaster, AL
| said by JTRockville :
Don't forget the pop-ups.
Remember the old dial-up trick of turning off images?
Aye, all these "I can't control bandwidth" arguments never stopped dial-up ISPs from charging by the minute. |
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b_zen
Premium
join:2002-07-24
Saint Louis, MO
clubs:
·TTNet
|  Billing By The Byte Works For Me!
Hi,
I don't want to make it too long...
So, I like the Billing By The Byte scheme; why? You may ask...
As a company, I would offer true broadband (10Mbps, asym. or sym.) with a flat "access" fee per month, say $19.95, then offer speed throttle options with corresponding per speed or per gig fees. Whichever way you look at it, if you have faster bandwidth, you will download "faster" (in theory), so as a user, I can have my basic 700+Kbps, and only pay when i want to get in the two digits speed (i.e. watch an mpeg4 streaming movie) or so on....
What do you guys think? |
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JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD
clubs: | reply to joebear29
Re: I see many things, I see plans within plans
True enough. Sill, it's a shame that the broadband of tomorrow looks so similar to the dialup of yesterday. I thought we'd evolved.
Oh well, at least there are some technologies where usage isn't restricted. |
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JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD
clubs: | reply to b_zen
Re: Billing By The Byte Works For Me!
I think you should build that system immediately.
The cable industry is in desperate need of competition. Your offering would be mighty attractive to many people. |
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