JohnG@lt wrote:
Turquoise wrote:
JohnG@lt wrote:
Hate to quote myself but...
Charging by the minute/GB/whatever would also make people more vigilant about controlling their networks... which would make that rule that Germany passed completely unnecessary. When shit is relatively free, no one respects it.
Uh... no. ISP's make enough money as it is. To then make it so they limit bandwidth to sites depending on how much a site pays them to connect to them is just highway robbery.
Harmor mentioned "anemic growth". That would occur if ISP's were allowed to negate net neutrality.
So, having the FCC ensure that net neutrality remains in place is a good thing. It would also be nice if they outlawed bandwidth caps, because they are entirely unnecessary for our system.
I said nothing about charging sites for their traffic. I said that the end user, the consumer, should pay for the bandwidth they use rather than paying a flat monthly fee. Why am I paying the same rate as someone that leaves his BitTorrent up 24/7? The stress I put on the system is far less.
To take it further with an analogy, if my local government has a choice between charging a toll on a bridge through town or imposing a tax on everyone living in the town, which is more fair? I say it's more fair to charge a toll on those that actually use the bridge to pay for its upkeep.
We've been over this before, but I think illustration is in order.
Notice all the stuff about 3G data plans being limited, as well as limits on cable and DSL connections? In almost all cases, the plans involved are priced as they were before the limitations; you're just getting less for your money. If strict consumption-based plans were in any way a viable way for an ISP to do business, don't you think that they would have done it by now? The fact of the matter is that while ISPs complain about the "3%" of users that they feel are generating too much traffic, they neglect to mention how much of a killing they make off of selling completely overdimensioned products to the remaining 97%.
Any ISP moving to a pay-by-the-bit concept would have to enact atrociously high pricing to compensate for the $50 they just lost from grandma who is responsible for a couple of cents worth of infrastructure and network transit costs every month. It'd be instant bankruptcy. You may think that ISPs are being "unfair" to you when they sell you their plans, but rest assured that you would be paying at least what you're paying now, if not more, should your wish come true. You aren't losing anything.
