[Discuss] data caps

[matt at mattshields.org (Matt Shields)]

On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 3:13 AM, Tom Metro <tmetro+blu at gmail.com> wrote:

> Lets move on from DRM and GPL to another topic we all love - data caps!
>
> The clips and commentary below became too long, so I'll provide a tl;dr
> summary up top, and pose a question for discussion. Here's the premise:
> data caps are not about solving network congestion, they're about
> increasing revenues and staving off competition from other content
> providers; data delivery has gotten increasingly more profitable for
> ISPs as their delivery costs have dropped and their investment in
> infrastructure has shrunk; the lack of competition permits this to happen.
>
> Read further below if you want to see the articles that support the above.
>
> Given this, if you were choosing a broadband provider, and you didn't
> want to reward companies that follow these practices, who would you
> pick? While you can currently avoid data caps by selecting a
> business-class service, you're still rewarding the same companies with
> your business, and what's to stop them from introducing caps later?
>
> In the sub-$200/month price range, there doesn't seem to be an
> alternative to cable and telco fiber, unless you are willing to slow
> down to DSL speeds, or happen to be in one of the few areas where there
> is a fixed wireless provider.
>
>
Sorry for not reading the whole article, I promise I will later.  While I
would love to punish the companies that abuse datacaps in favor of profit.
 Some people do not have much of a choice when it comes to what service is
available.  In Quincy we have Comcast.  If you don't want Comcast you
either need to go with Clear.com whose service stinks (they don't have a
cap but they throttle) or buy a traditional T circuit which is really
expensive.  I would love for there to be more competition but in this state
the individual towns/cities make their own deals with the companies for
profit sharing.  Quincy happened to strike a good deal with Comcast and
they do not want to renegotiate with them to allow competitors because
their percentage per household in the city will go down and thereby cutting
some of the revenue for the town.

Matt