4 ms·

IMO a big part of the issue is the consumer. Consumers know very little about internet other than "buy the one with the biggest number". So internet is advertis

IMO a big part of the issue is the consumer. Consumers know very little about internet other than "buy the one with the biggest number". So internet is advertised like flow rate (L per minute) and restricted like water (Cubic M). I think they should goto a connection + volume model. $10 a month just to be connected, maybe 500MB free download or whatever. And then you pay per GB, variable rates based on time of day. $1 per GB at 7pm, $0.01 at 3am. Like how industrial electricity rates work (if i understand correctly). Pricing models will screw consumers over until the pricing model matches the economics of the situation. If I were a startup this is the issue I'd fix; Pricing models that do not match the economics.

nitrogen 11y ago
$1 per gigabyte is an exorbitant price even if everyone on the planet was using the network at the same time.
SilasX 11y ago
What about having users "pay" by thinning their pipes (in favor of other users) in proportion to their peak hour usage? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10525574 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10525574
brodie78382 11y ago
The problem with this is, generally speaking, it doesn't cost an ISP much more for everyone to be using their connection versus everyone not. All the infrastructure runs 24/7 regardless if you're using it or not (if you really get into the math, yes it costs slightly more electricity for equipment to use more hardware resources, but again it's pennies). The real costs come from upgrading the infrastructure to keep up with your top demand, and paying humans to maintain it all.