Comment A Couple Things to Consider (Score 1) 360
1) If they're overselling their capacity and pocketing the difference now, what makes you think they won't equally overcharge and under-serve customers in a pay per megabyte system.
2) As bandwidth increases and the bandwidth necessary to run XYZ application increases steadily over time, when am I assured that prices will change accordingly? A pay per megabyte system on my current DSL line would look significantly different if I was being offered FIOS or a competing fiber service. And 5 years from now, this will look different again. Without competition forcing providers to price down, I could agree to a per-megabyte price that is excellent for YouTube, but is going to blow when I start downloading movies on my 360. Or I could get a plan that's great for downloading movies on my 360 today, and next year is going to seriously hurt when I have a device to download HD quality video. You think the big telco's are complaining now about streaming video, wait until Youtube is regularly serving H264 and beyond.
I have about 100 objections to what the realities of this type of pricing would entail, but those two are good for starters.
2) As bandwidth increases and the bandwidth necessary to run XYZ application increases steadily over time, when am I assured that prices will change accordingly? A pay per megabyte system on my current DSL line would look significantly different if I was being offered FIOS or a competing fiber service. And 5 years from now, this will look different again. Without competition forcing providers to price down, I could agree to a per-megabyte price that is excellent for YouTube, but is going to blow when I start downloading movies on my 360. Or I could get a plan that's great for downloading movies on my 360 today, and next year is going to seriously hurt when I have a device to download HD quality video. You think the big telco's are complaining now about streaming video, wait until Youtube is regularly serving H264 and beyond.
I have about 100 objections to what the realities of this type of pricing would entail, but those two are good for starters.
