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I'm going purely off memory, but I recall vaguely that in Korea there are charges for the "push" side of network use, as well as the "pull" side. I can't recall

I'm going purely off memory, but I recall vaguely that in Korea there are charges for the "push" side of network use, as well as the "pull" side. I can't recall if this is a government thing, or an ISP thing, or a confluence of both working together. I seem to recall Netflix becoming frustrated about this at some point. Maybe someone can find more info, since I'm replying on a device that makes actually looking this up a little tricky.

kijin 3y ago
In Korea, broadband consumers only pay for the size of the pipe (100Mbps, 500Mbps, 1Gbps, etc.) and not for transfer. It's been like this for the last 20+ years. Even mobile carriers have "unlimited" plans. Short of outright collusion, nobody would dare comes up with a different pricing structure. Everyone would flock to a competitor! Moreover, the population is shrinking. The ISPs have little hope of increasing revenue from the "pull" side, which probably explains why they keep trying to pile charges upon the "push" side.
- fomine3 3y ago
  It's common for consumer internet in many countries. What's different in Korea, dominance?
  - Xelynega 3y ago
    Market dominance is probably the reason. Canada had crown ISPs that offered unlimited data plans, so telcos has to do the same to compete and the idea of a fixed cap internet plan is rodiculous. When mobile data became popular there were no crown telcos anymore(other than SaskTel) so the prices started ridiculously high and were never brought down(other than in Saskatchewan)
    - MichaelZuo 3y ago
      > the idea of a fixed cap internet plan is rodiculous. Why? As far as I understand in Canada there are genuine costs incurred per extra bit of data transferred. Legal liability costs, peak congestion costs, etc... It may be a very very tiny amount per bit, but when multiplied hundreds of billions of times, they become noticeable costs.

kijin 3y ago

In Korea, broadband consumers only pay for the size of the pipe (100Mbps, 500Mbps, 1Gbps, etc.) and not for transfer. It's been like this for the last 20+ years. Even mobile carriers have "unlimited" plans. Short of outright collusion, nobody would dare comes up with a different pricing structure. Everyone would flock to a competitor! Moreover, the population is shrinking. The ISPs have little hope of increasing revenue from the "pull" side, which probably explains why they keep trying to pile charges upon the "push" side.

fomine3 3y ago
It's common for consumer internet in many countries. What's different in Korea, dominance?
- Xelynega 3y ago
  Market dominance is probably the reason. Canada had crown ISPs that offered unlimited data plans, so telcos has to do the same to compete and the idea of a fixed cap internet plan is rodiculous. When mobile data became popular there were no crown telcos anymore(other than SaskTel) so the prices started ridiculously high and were never brought down(other than in Saskatchewan)
  - MichaelZuo 3y ago
    > the idea of a fixed cap internet plan is rodiculous. Why? As far as I understand in Canada there are genuine costs incurred per extra bit of data transferred. Legal liability costs, peak congestion costs, etc... It may be a very very tiny amount per bit, but when multiplied hundreds of billions of times, they become noticeable costs.