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Wired residential data tends to be unmetered in many countries in Europe. Server/commercial data usage is often not metered; bandwidth is charged at a fixed pr

Wired residential data tends to be unmetered in many countries in Europe. Server/commercial data usage is often not metered; bandwidth is charged at a fixed price for the provided line, or e.g. a 95%ile (making off-peak data "free"). Water is not metered individually per household in some houses. There is one meter per house, and the cost is split (equally or according to some formula based on people living there or apartment size).

derefr 7y ago
> Server/commercial data usage is often not metered; bandwidth is charged at a fixed price for the provided line, or e.g. a 95%ile (making off-peak data "free"). That's not so much "unmetered" as it is "metered using a fixed heuristic for expected usage, that results in the supplier still making a profit† even if you're using 100% of what they provide." † a profit compared to 100% usage with the relative additional costs of metering. (This is why the price is fixed around 95%—that's the break-even where metering the extra usage would cost just as much as taking the hit on the unmetered 5% extra usage.)
- ghaff 7y ago
  And they may even be OK with some of their heaviest customers being money-losers, so long as the marketing/sales advantages of having a fixed rate outweigh pay-as-you-go pricing.
- JetSpiegel 7y ago
  It's basically all you can eat. There are heuristicts about the limit on what you can consume.
krageon 7y ago
> Server/commercial data usage is often not metered This is definitely not typical in Europe. Typically you'll get a bandwidth cap and have to pay per gigabyte above that. For home use this is not the norm.
- cpach 7y ago
  IMHO it’s kinda hard to generalise about the whole of Europe as if all European countries are alike. Where I live (Sweden) ADSL and fiber for home use are generally not capped, AFAIK. Obviously that is not true for all European countries.
  - krageon 7y ago
    You are correct of course, I am talking about the rich parts of Europe. The more to the east (and in some cases the south) you go, the worse the situation can be. Edit: Though reading this again, I was mostly talking about server usage - in which case I don't know of any country that has unmetered bandwidth in practice (this means no FUP either, which is just a fancy way of saying "there is a cap but we can change it whenever we feel like it") in the EU and I have an above average familiarity with the space.

derefr 7y ago

> Server/commercial data usage is often not metered; bandwidth is charged at a fixed price for the provided line, or e.g. a 95%ile (making off-peak data "free"). That's not so much "unmetered" as it is "metered using a fixed heuristic for expected usage, that results in the supplier still making a profit† even if you're using 100% of what they provide." † a profit compared to 100% usage with the relative additional costs of metering. (This is why the price is fixed around 95%—that's the break-even where metering the extra usage would cost just as much as taking the hit on the unmetered 5% extra usage.)

ghaff 7y ago
And they may even be OK with some of their heaviest customers being money-losers, so long as the marketing/sales advantages of having a fixed rate outweigh pay-as-you-go pricing.
JetSpiegel 7y ago
It's basically all you can eat. There are heuristicts about the limit on what you can consume.

krageon 7y ago

> Server/commercial data usage is often not metered This is definitely not typical in Europe. Typically you'll get a bandwidth cap and have to pay per gigabyte above that. For home use this is not the norm.

cpach 7y ago
IMHO it’s kinda hard to generalise about the whole of Europe as if all European countries are alike. Where I live (Sweden) ADSL and fiber for home use are generally not capped, AFAIK. Obviously that is not true for all European countries.
- krageon 7y ago
  You are correct of course, I am talking about the rich parts of Europe. The more to the east (and in some cases the south) you go, the worse the situation can be. Edit: Though reading this again, I was mostly talking about server usage - in which case I don't know of any country that has unmetered bandwidth in practice (this means no FUP either, which is just a fancy way of saying "there is a cap but we can change it whenever we feel like it") in the EU and I have an above average familiarity with the space.