On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 14:50:08 -0600, Michael Halcrow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ... In any > case, I think that ISP's will one day follow the model that the cell > phone companies currently employ. Give a quota for every month, and > bandwidth used during peak periods applies to that quota (with > ``unlimited bytes'' at 2:00am, for example, to give incentive for > people to grab their ISO's from a cron job so they don't stress the > network). Then charge for every megabyte used over that quota. Usage > of available resources will become more constant (i.e., the maximum > bytes/sec will go down), and hence more efficient, and > hence... cheaper (for the average user, at least)! If you find that > you hit your quota too often, then buy the higher-quota package.
Two things about this: I think Xmission's billing model is basically what you described except that they offer a little mercy for the occasional over-quota month and instead of charging you for the extra you use they just bump you up to the next bracket and bill you for it. It works great for them. A man from AT&T wireless spoke at the engineering college lecture last month. One of the things he mentioned is that they can't seem to get people using their network for data. Aside from the fact that cell phones suck as web browsers or email clients I think part of the problem is the pricing model. It would be worth noting that ISPs in Germany go out of business every couple of months. They charge per-byte. ISPs in the US are doing well, some of them exceptionally well. I know it would be falacious to jump to conclusions but maybe the per-byte model doesn't work. -------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
