Would This Isp Idea Work/be Feasible?

Kryptonite

Well-Known Member
Oct 21, 2008
11,670
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My (possibly) crazy thought/dream/wish is that everyone should get the same speed...say, at least 50Mbps, but you get billed based on how much you use. If grandma and grandpa down the street only check their email once or twice a day, no, they shouldn't have to pay a lot, say $10-$15 per month. Meanwhile, if there's a family with 3 or 4 kids with the Netflix, video games and all that, yeah, they should probably have to pay more because they use more.... but we're all getting the same speed.

People still download/upload the same amount of data if they have 7Mbps or if they have 1Gb speeds. I do think it's crazy that if you want faster, you need to pay more.

Example:
"We'll give you 50 Mbps download speed for $15 per month flat-rate. We'll meter your downloads and every time you pass a multiple of 10GBs starting at 10 GBs, there is a $10 fee."

1-10 gig per month would be $15 per month.
11-20 gig would be $25 per month.
20-30 gig would be $35 per month.
31-40 gig would be $45 per month.
41-50 gig would be $55 per month.
51-60 gig would be $65 per month.

At 61 gig per month? I'm not sure I could comprehend that. You'd have to have multiple devices on *and downloading* several heavy things on a regular basis.

Using AT&T's download meter, 2200 emails downloaded, 470 songs, 1020 photos, 71 hours online gaming and 13 hours streaming online video per month is only 40.53 GBs. Add on seven hours of HD movie streaming and you're at 58.03Gb...but really, who has all that time between work and other commitments?
 

HecticArt

Administrator
Oct 19, 2008
49,832
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Toledo, Ohio
I doubt it would work. The ISP's make more money from the people that don't use their capacity than the ones use a lot. They blame the high use people as a way to distract everyone else. In turn, they look at the high use people as an opportunity to tack on new fees. It's all a scam I tell ya.
 

MadisonRadio1

MadisonRadio
Oct 17, 2008
7,793
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Madison, Wisconsin
I think that could be applied to just about anything. If you buy a meal and only eat half of it. If you have a pool or gym membership and rarely go, you are not using the full benefit of what you paid for. You wouldn't get a partial refund.

On the other hand, utilities kind of work that way. I supposedly pay less if I use less water and electricity than my neighbor. And my local utility is lobbying to provide fiber optic broadband, so maybe they will bill like that.
 

memebag

Top Brass, ADVP
Oct 11, 2008
17,404
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Lake Huntzing
The average internet bill is probably close to $50, and the average user probably uses 20-30GB each month. So scale those prices up and the ISPs might go for it, otherwise they'll lose money.

And typical cord-cutter households are using well over 200GB/month. To keep them (if you want them) you'd have to flatten the slope of those prices considerably.
 

blyons200

These pretzels are making me thirsty.
Oct 12, 2008
8,448
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The BBQ Capital
Mobile companies charge per use rather than speed. Except they give you data packages rather than metering use. For example I supposedly have unlimited data on AT&T yet for some reason it's legal for them to throttle me once I reach 5GB in a month? How is that unlimited? They don't offer unlimited packages anymore but the most you can get from AT&T is 5 gig. I don't reach 5 GB every month but it pisses me off when I do and get throttled. It varies and I really get slowed down during peak times. I'd switch to T-Mobile or Sprint but I need coverage in rural areas, and that's only possible with AT&T and Verizon.
 

blyons200

These pretzels are making me thirsty.
Oct 12, 2008
8,448
1,548
113
The BBQ Capital
The average internet bill is probably close to $50, and the average user probably uses 20-30GB each month. So scale those prices up and the ISPs might go for it, otherwise they'll lose money.

And typical cord-cutter households are using well over 200GB/month. To keep them (if you want them) you'd have to flatten the slope of those prices considerably.
What would cord cutters do if they had to pay really high rates due to their excessive data use? Go crawling back to cable? Or be true cord cutters and get a library card?
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Oct 11, 2008
27,230
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Toronto, ON
I have unlimited. Comes with the package. I don't have to worry about the tonnes of shit my son is watching and steaming. I also pay slightly more for faster. I would not subscribe to this internet idea. I would go with a fixed plan. What you would have is grandmas or granpas joining and no heavy users. Not sure how the ISP would make enough money.