5 ms·
Some thought experiments for you to try: - Does this guarantee that you get the speed that you pay for? If not, then should the price during heavy congestion c
by hysan 6y ago
Some thought experiments for you to try:
- Does this guarantee that you get the speed that you pay for? If not, then should the price during heavy congestion cost less per GB? I’ve had the unfortunate luck of having lived in areas where the internet is unusable for anything other than email and light browsing during peak hours. Bonus: Do you know why this happens? If not, I encourage you to research this.
- How will this affect the advertising model of the entire internet economy? If you, like me, have lived your whole life on a mobile data plan that is priced based on data usage, you’ll realize just how much bandwidth is consumed by advertisements (worst are the video/audio types that auto play).
- How will this affect “future” technology such at smart homes? Most devices send data back (Amazon Echo devices) and the growing security camera ecosystem that sends recordings to the cloud would suddenly cost users a ton more.
- Speaking of cloud, what will happen to the gaming industry that is heavily cloud based? Many games don’t even ship in a completed state anymore. Instead, part of the install requires downloading a ton of additional updates. Not to mention online play, DLC, etc.
There a many many more everyday examples like this that would be heavily affected by pricing per GB. Your question sounds like a simple solution but like many things in life, that is rarely the case.
- gkfasdfasdf 6y agoI think the answer to most of these questions is, let the market decide. E.g. consider this: congestion during peak hours is bad now, but there is currently no penalty on an ISP for being slow. However if billing was based on bytes moved, for an ISP to underserve during times of demand means lost revenue. Thus ISPs would be incentivized to provide the best service.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- hysan 6y agoWith respect to the US, this answer is incomplete. The theory of letting the market decide only works when there is a free market. Most places I’ve lived has only had a single choice for ISP effectively making them monopolies.
- webmaven 6y ago> With respect to the US, this answer is incomplete. The theory of letting the market decide only works when there is a free market. Most places I’ve lived has only had a single choice for ISP effectively making them monopolies. Furthermore, even in places where you do have some sort of choice for internet service, it is almost certainly limited to choosing between a cable monopoly and a phone monopoly as your ISP.