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> the costs are proportional to the bandwidth That's not how statistical multiplexing works. If it was some sort of a natural law that shipping 1 byte cost $x
by trepanne 7y ago
> the costs are proportional to the bandwidth
That's not how statistical multiplexing works.
If it was some sort of a natural law that shipping 1 byte cost $x on the margin, then the PSTN never would have survived the shift to unmetered long distance service. Somehow ISPs have been making big profits selling unmetered internet service during a period of hypergrowth. How is it possible that they didn't go broke during this process?
The real story here is that "power user" is a proxy for "cord cutter". If a residential user downloads 1TB per month, then they're a thoroughgoing "over the top" video consumer. The traffic patterns are different for streamers vs. pirates, but it's still people watching TV and not paying cableco for the privilege.
They're just doing price discrimination, rolling out bandwidth caps with punitive fees for violations, and waiting for the 4K frog to boil. Roll it forward, and you're back in the world of all you can eat at a higher price point. Cablecos don't really have to care how you split your bill between internet and video, as long as ARPU stays in the $70-$100 range. "Dumb pipes" are higher margin than cable channels, and don't need contract renegotiations with steely-eyed squeezers like Disney.
Let DIS roll their price increases out directly to consumers with their streaming channels, while you just sitting there running a toll road. It's like a regulated natural monopoly, without the burden of appropriate regulation. This is a nice business.
> If you want to know what unlimited bandwidth really costs, look at the price of the business plans.
The premium there is for uptime guarantees, better service, and a certain amount of legislative corruption (without which no discussion of telco/cableco practices would be complete). They are allowed to discriminate between commercial & residential customers, and refuse residential service to commercial addresses.