

If net neutrality is coming, so is the end of all-you-can-eat Internet access - fromedome
http://www.businessinsider.com/if-net-neutrality-is-coming-so-is-the-end-of-all-you-can-eat-internet-access-2010-12

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pzxc
The argument rests on the assumption that the increase in bandwidth
consumption is now and will continue to outpace the decrease in the cost of
bandwidth production. I don't know how much cheaper it is to provide a
gigabyte of bandwidth today than it was a year ago or a decade ago, and I know
that bandwidth consumption is certainly skyrocketing, but if the rest of the
technology industry is any indication (where I now pay pennies for CPU cycles
that would have cost millions a few decades ago), it may turn out in the end
that bandwidth becomes so cheap it doesn't matter how much video a few billion
humans watch each day online.

On the other hand, if it does turn out to matter how much bandwidth costs, I'd
much rather pay for how much I'm using and have equal access across all
channels and content types, than to have "unlimited internet" but have to wait
for videos to buffer because my ISP says it has lower priority than something
else or someBODY else they deem more worthy.

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jaysonelliot
This smells an awful lot like a story planted by the telcoms that want to stop
net neutrality.

Does anyone honestly believe that, were Comcast or Verizon to start metering
internet access, no competitor would show up to steal away all their business
with an all-you-can-eat plan?

History says otherwise.

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mooism2
This is the problem with the US broadband industry though, isn't it? That in
most areas it is a duopoly (incumbent phone company -v- incumbent cable
company) with no effective competition.

