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> They don't even make congestion a more rare occurrence. Because if everybody uses more data there won't be more congestion? Sorry, that does not even qualify

by usrusr 8y ago

> They don't even make congestion a more rare occurrence. Because if everybody uses more data there won't be more congestion? Sorry, that does not even qualify as wishful thinking. What caps do is force people who use the network more than others to contribute roughly proportionally more to its investment and maintenance. If you really expect guaranteed uncontested bandwidth, anytime, anywhere, then your network could only ever sell you as much as you'd get if every one of their customers would gather in a single cell and fire up their radios at once. You would dream of modem speeds - and not be willing to pay even a cent for that tiny amount of service.

shmerl 8y ago
Because congestion is not caused by using more data, it's caused by more people using connection simultaneously. As I said above, monthly caps don't help for that at all. I.e. let's say now is the time when all caps are reset (beginning of the month). Everyone starts using the network - boom! You have congestion even if amount of data they consumed is small. To make the analogy more easy to digest. Let's say you have a highway that's commonly overloaded. Instead of adding more lanes or limiting the number of cars per hour, you start limiting the distance that cars can go. How is that going to help? It will still get congested. So ISPs should stop pretending already that caps are a network management tool - it's not. It's a user fleecing and anti-competitive tool they use to increase their profits.
- usrusr 8y ago
  > Instead of adding more lanes or limiting the number of cars per hour, you start limiting the distance that cars can go. How is that going to help? It helps by making people think twice about doing unnecessary trips. Unlike driving, where people's patience for sitting in traffic is naturally limited, appetite for IP traffic is almost unbounded. Data caps prevent the equivalent of continuously running your toilet flush.
  - shmerl 8y ago
    Except data caps still won't prevent the actual problem, I already explained above why. Even if you pretend it's a psychological deterrent - it's not really a solution to the technical issue. And ISPs will try to avoid admitting the obvious, that caps are a convenient tool to rip everyone off. If they are worried about congestion, they have only two things they can do: 1. build their network up. 2. start reducing bandwidth of each connection, if they are too many of them.

by usrusr 8y ago

shmerl 8y ago

Because congestion is not caused by using more data, it's caused by more people using connection simultaneously. As I said above, monthly caps don't help for that at all. I.e. let's say now is the time when all caps are reset (beginning of the month). Everyone starts using the network - boom! You have congestion even if amount of data they consumed is small. To make the analogy more easy to digest. Let's say you have a highway that's commonly overloaded. Instead of adding more lanes or limiting the number of cars per hour, you start limiting the distance that cars can go. How is that going to help? It will still get congested. So ISPs should stop pretending already that caps are a network management tool - it's not. It's a user fleecing and anti-competitive tool they use to increase their profits.

usrusr 8y ago
> Instead of adding more lanes or limiting the number of cars per hour, you start limiting the distance that cars can go. How is that going to help? It helps by making people think twice about doing unnecessary trips. Unlike driving, where people's patience for sitting in traffic is naturally limited, appetite for IP traffic is almost unbounded. Data caps prevent the equivalent of continuously running your toilet flush.
- shmerl 8y ago
  Except data caps still won't prevent the actual problem, I already explained above why. Even if you pretend it's a psychological deterrent - it's not really a solution to the technical issue. And ISPs will try to avoid admitting the obvious, that caps are a convenient tool to rip everyone off. If they are worried about congestion, they have only two things they can do: 1. build their network up. 2. start reducing bandwidth of each connection, if they are too many of them.