Well, That's One Argument Against Metered Broadband
from the grasping-at-straws dept
There's been quite a bit of uproar over some ISPs' boneheaded plans to introduce broadband traffic caps and charge customers based on the amount of data that travels across their broadband connection. Already, the pushback against Time Warner's plans to expand its use of the caps has led another ISP, Frontier Communications, to reconsider its plans to introduce them, illustrating how competition could take care of this issue. Still, some politicians see it as a chance to wade in and drum up some publicity, such as a New York congressman, who (among other things) says the caps raise "broad and sweeping First Amendment issues." Erm, well, these caps aren't so impressive, but to imply they're unconstitutional seems like a bit of a stretch. But the rhetoric is -- unfortunately -- typical of politicians' positions on these issues. The rep says he'll take "a leadership role in stopping this outrageous, job killing initiative", which is nice and sure to grab some headlines in his hometown paper, but it ignores the real issue at play: a lack of true competition in the broadband market. Politicians jump on whatever hot internet issue pops up, whether it's these caps, or something like net neutrality, talking about the need for new laws and rules. If they'd do more to engender actual, meaningful competition in the broadband market, all of these issues would take care of themselves. But that doesn't make for nearly as great a sound bite, apparently.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: first amendment, metered broadband
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Finally
It is a shame that they are being allowed to put in plans like the wireless phone companies do, where you don't know your bill total until the end of the month, and then it is too late to go back. Not going to pay extra for bandwidth that they have for years pushed us to use, just to take it away and now charge us for.
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Re: Finally
As I've said before, the *true* cost of the data usage will come about only with a healthy market. If Warner wants to charge $80/month for 250GB/month, and it really only costs $45/month to break even regardless of a cap, you'd be safe assuming that the competition would see the negative reaction and push out uncapped access for $75/month, and wait as the flood of users to come in.
Without competition, they can (and apparently will) fleece their customers for more and more without fear of losing them.
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Re: Finally
The real impetus for these caps is an intersection of two issues. First, the lack of significant broadband competition in most markets. Second, these caps are mostly coming from cable companies, which have a vested interest in wanting people to watch TV and movies on cable rather than downloading/streaming them (whether Bittorrent, Hulu, iTunes, or Netflix). The first point's been beaten to death by others, so I'll let it be.
The problem with trying to cap bandwidth to limit piracy is that legitimate downloads of the same material won't be any smaller. Sure, the pirates are the ones with most of the bandwidth usage now. But as legitimate services take off, and people get more used to using them over cable/satellite TV, the rest of the users will approach the same bandwidth levels. And who benefits the most from slowing the uptake of online video services? The incumbent TV providers, i.e. the cable companies.
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toke, toke, pass it to the left.
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Re:
Others lacking firsthand subject matter will often try to put themselves into the mindset of the subject matter they had in the past.
Off the cuff suggestions such as "toke, toke, pass it to the left" should provide insight to Harold Hill's source of information.
Bravo.
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Re: Re:
If you're a dick who smokes pot, it's very likely that you'd still be a dick if you didn't.
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Re:
Obviously, they are the one who sent you here on a wild goose chase.
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Re:
Keep figuring then, because that's basically the opposite of what was said. Reading comprehension is your friend... and it appears you have no friends.
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Re:
Still so confused, I see. An artist makes art. More specifically, a musician makes music. Furthermore, the mp3s on my iphone are not music, they are recordings of music. Who makes recordings of music? Why, the record industry.
I am all for musicians getting paid for their work: making music. I, however, don't feel that recording of said music are worth purchasing, so I don't buy it. However, since I want to pay musicians for their work (making music) I need a way to determine with musicians to support. The only way I can do this is by listening to music they have once made, in the form of a recording. I'm sure even you can see the problem. I need to listen to their past music to know if I want to get out of my apartment, drive to their show, and pay them to make music for me.
Think of it this way: When I go to see a musician play, I'm not paying them for music they made weeks ago, I'm paying them so they can go make *new* music. To know if my investment in their trade is a wise one, I need to know what their trade was like so far. (via recordings)
It makes so much sense I can't understand how you don't get it.
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Re:
Artists rights? Like people haven't been recording live tv or hbo or what-have-you for 30 years to get copies of movies they like or would like to see but don't really feel are necessarily worth cash up front sight unseen. Like people didn't record the radio for 20 years before mp3s. Music and movie sales have more than tripled in annual growth in the years since broadband became available to the household and the RIAA and MPAA should both take a few moments and recognize the fact that people that have been exposed to quality material for free are more likely to want to pay for that material in the future.
Personally I went 25 years only buying roughly 20 albums and a dozen movies, but in this era of broadband file sharing I've downloaded thousands of episodes of tv shows and hundreds of movies and in turn have found reasons to go out and buy the box set to get the dvd commentaries now that I care about the show, or go out and get the movie because I like it so much and want a permanent copy.
You and the thousands like you need to review facts and ask for actual proof of a problem before jumping on board with major corporations that are of the belief that less piracy equals more sales while in truth the moment they get their way they'll see sales figures plummet. I hope you wake up and realize you're not helping yourself or anyone else by pushing for more control and less freedom.
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No one here is supporting "constitutional right to unlimited internet bandwidth." I guess you missed the part where Mike says "unconstitutional seems like a bit of a stretch." The point is that dumb politicians are grandstanding, and it is on topics they are not even worthy of their opinion one way or the other because they are not informed enough.
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Re:
I think maybe because while he terms it a "bit of a stretch" he knows that forced uncapped bandwidth would play into his "FREE!" agenda. He probably just doesn't want this nutty politician to screw it up by asking for it too early or something.
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Metered Broadband makes some sense
Personally I'd avoid any metered plan because I do a lot of downloading
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Time Warner is starting here soon..
He said the rates would go up to $80/month for 250GB. It's only $35/month (part of a bundle) now for the turbo (10Mb) and that all current customers even those locked in as I am will be forced into this new pay scheme.
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Re: Time Warner is starting here soon..
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the caps
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Re: the caps
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What competition?
I would love to see Condo arrangements for fiber in the last mile.
Imagine a home owner with the option of buying dialtone, or internet at a local peering point. Suddenly it's economical to have quite a few service providers competing for that business. The owner just coordinates with the service provider and the condo management company for new service.
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Have at it...
Fine with me, as a result my parents, in-laws, sister, and aunt & uncle may notice an increase in remote connections coming into their homes, and I'll just distribute my downloads across all the connections and collect the data via a portable drive when I visit them...
So suck it...
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Re: Have at it...
It's amazing what people will do.
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Dumb politicians :p
Do ISP's pay backbone provider according to bandwidth used?
If yes, then I think metering is a good idea.
In a way it indirectly takes care of piracy without trampling personal liberties.
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Re: Dumb politicians :p
Talk about baby with the bath water.
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Re: Re: Dumb politicians :p
Want HBO on your TV? Is it free? Only if you are "borrowing" it. Want to watch hulu 24 hours a day on the internet? Well, you know the answer.
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Re: Re: Re: Dumb politicians :p
However, I was referring to the fact that some people say this is "to stop the pirates", and I was pointing out that there are plenty of completely legal ways to rack up that bandwidth.
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Re: Re: Dumb politicians :p
Regarding file sharing: even it is paid I would share media with my friends and family. But I doubt I will be seeding torrent files helping those who I don't even know of.
BTW, in a in a hypothetical scenario (due to metering reason) lets say you have to pay some money to share a song. WOuld you share it with strangers if cost is $0.01/song/sharing? $0.10/song/sharing?
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Re: Re: Re: Dumb politicians :p
That brings an excellent question to mind! Is this a cap on upload + download? If so, wouldn't sharing a song with a stranger cause them to be paid twice? I've always thought of it as a "download" cap.
It's even worse from this point of view.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Dumb politicians :p
Anyways for this discussion lets assume downloader and uploader split the cost.
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Already Metered
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Re: Already Metered
Wow!!! you have a really fast connection! 100mbps!
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Hmmmmmm
Probably not
What will happen ?
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Re: Hmmmmmm
Thanks for the new point of view!
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Re: Hmmmmmm
There is an easy fix though. ISPs can educate their customers about firefox and ad blocking addons.
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Re: Re: Hmmmmmm
:P
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Re: Re: Re: Hmmmmmm
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Hmmmmmm
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hmmmmmm
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I thought we were paying for use of broaadband. Raise the prices or got off the pot.
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Ha Ha Ha
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Bandwidth
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No Competition
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