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While true in general, the cost of unoversubscribed wholesale bandwidth is rapidly approaching the cost of oversubscribed retail bandwidth. Wholesale bandwidth
by iptrans 6y ago
While true in general, the cost of unoversubscribed wholesale bandwidth is rapidly approaching the cost of oversubscribed retail bandwidth.
Wholesale bandwidth is 5 cents per Mbps or less at scale. Not that the ISP pays for all bandwidth, peering and CDN traffic is free.
In other words, even if you max out a 1 Gbps line 24/7, you are only costing the ISP $50 per month.
Add to that that most people are unable to consume even 10 Mbps on average and bandwidth costs become less and less of an issue. An average subscriber will use 2-4 Mbps of bandwidth during primetime, and primetime is all you care about as an ISP.
Nothing in this means that offering bandwidth on demand is impossible or a threat to the ISP business model.
It’s just that the overhead of offering an on-demand product to consumers isn’t worth the time and effort, as you’d be making peanuts while having to deal with a lot of grief.
Bandwidth on demand is a thing for businesses and operators. A good example of this is Megaport, who offers virtual cross connects and transport. Price start from $100 per month plus a varying fee per Mbps, from a few cents to a few dollars per month.
- zokier 6y ago> Add to that that most people are unable to consume even 10 Mbps on average and bandwidth costs become less and less of an issue. An average subscriber will use 2-4 Mbps of bandwidth during primetime, and primetime is all you care about as an ISP 4k Netflix is around 15 Mbps alone, even 1080p is >5 Mbps. And with games being now > 100 GB downloads these days, I would expect that to contribute meaningfully too to the bandwidth usage even if average person probably doesn't quite download new games daily.
- iptrans 6y agoNope. Subscribers average 2-4 Mbps during primetime, less averaged over the course of a whole month. Netflix is only about 30% of all Internet bits, and there's a limit to how much Netflix and chill anybody can do.
- gnopgnip 6y ago1080p Netflix is 2-2.5 Mbps in practice because of video compression. You only get 1080p or better with certain browsers too. Many people use Netflix in Chrome or Firefox and only get 720p
- zokier 6y agoI took my numbers from here: https://www.androidauthority.com/how-much-data-does-netflix-use-976146/ https://www.androidauthority.com/how-much-data-does-netflix-... 3 GB / hour to Mbps = 6.667 Mb/s https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=3+GB+%2F+hour+to+Mbps https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=3+GB+%2F+hour+to+Mbps 7 GB / hour to Mbps = 15.56 Mb/s
- gtm1260 6y agoWait...netflix in chrome is only 720p!? How do I get 1080?
- kn0where 6y agoYou have to use Edge or Safari, because DRM.
- TheGoddessInari 6y agoOr the netflix-1080p extension. It's not a matter of DRM.
- Spooky23 6y agoNetflix aggressively compresses. HBO on the other hand...
- fragmede 6y ago> In other words, even if you max out a 1 Gbps line 24/7, you are only costing the ISP $50 per month. In bandwidth sure, but the world isn't wired that way. There's a bottleneck somewhere between the ISP and the customer, that can't support all customers on that link running maxed out. In the gym analogy, even if the gym has 1 treadmill per customer, that doesn't help the shortage of weight machines. An ISP may choose to (or choose not to) invest in adding capacity to remove bottlenecks, but that's additional capital outlay that may not be prioritized or budgeted for.
- Spooky23 6y agoThe rationale gets weaker and weaker. Switches get cheaper and cheaper every year and require less and less labor to run. You can support 5x the bandwidth at 50% of the cost and 20% of the labor than you could in 2005-2010.
- iptrans 6y agoThe OP is on a brand new FTTH network. There aren't going to be many bottlenecks and any bottlenecks can be cured by inserting a new line card. And, as I wrote before, in no real life scenario will all 100% of subscriber be running their line at full tilt 24/7.
- supertrope 6y agoA 1 Gbps link in meet me room or downtown in a big city is very cheap. 1 Gbps in a residential neighborhood could be the node uplink shared between hundreds of households. Like electricity, most of retail cost is distribution to your home.
- iptrans 6y agoIn a CATV network, possibly. In a new FTTH network, not likely. Engineering a non-blocking 1 Gbps network isn't particularly hard or expensive using FTTH.