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01.18.08
Charging Subscribers Based On Usage
 By
David A. Utter
TWC to squeeze heavy bandwidth users...
As one major broadband provider prepares to test a pay by usage Internet scheme, we are reminded of the old days of online access.
Names like Prodigy, Delphi, and CompuServe mean little to the modern Internet user. In the dark ages before the Web and http came into being, the online world consisted of lots of text, a necessary familiarity with uuencode/uudecode, and metered access.
The more things change, etc. Time Warner Cable will bring back the past with a plan to charge subscribers based on their usage, according to Reuters. That test begins in Beaumont, Texas.
Time Warner Cable claimed five percent of its subscribers use
50 percent of its bandwidth. with Internet users receives the blame, with the problem worsening when more people seek
video content.
However, one industry observer commenting on the Bits Blog thinks the clampdown has more to do with content than the actual, minimal costs of providing extra broadband connectivity:
"The smart people at Time Warner are scared of people watching TV directly over the Internet," (Dave Burstein, the editor of DSL Prime) said. "'Lost' and 'Desperate Housewives' look better over the Internet than they do on digital cable."
Moreover, the marginal cost of extra bandwidth is very small, he said. For broadband Internet service, 80 percent to 90 percent of the costs are fixed regardless of use. And the all-in cost of a gigabyte of use is about 10 cents or less.
The real problem comes from the TWCs of the world thinking they should be more than just a utility, than just a dumb pipe delivering a service like electricity or water to the home. The telcos have lobbied hard throughout the US to keep municipalities from creating more services like Glasgow, Kentucky has for its citizens.
If more cities were able to implement plans that deliver Internet and digital television over electrical connections, Time Warner Cable and its ilk would not be so keen on pumping up the price for something that costs them pennies to deliver. Today would be a good day for people to ask their elected officials why their cities can't have an Internet utility.
About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
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