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Option 3 is data caps and/or metered billing. It's not exactly the most consumer-friendly option, but the ISPs would love to do it that way if they could.

by exelius 13y ago

pessimizer 13y ago
I love metered billing. The problem with it is that the video streamers will discover how much more bandwidth than everyone else they're using, and AT&T and Comcast's all-you-can-eat video services that use the same wire will look a lot more attractive to them. Ultimately, that may be a threat to network neutrality as the prices are raised on the metered internet in order to shift bandwidth to those siloed TV services, and the public won't care because they're not streaming video over the open internet anymore.
- exelius 13y ago
  Well, the reason it works for all-you-can-eat video services is that the cable companies are providing a distribution service to the content owners. So for HBO, they provide both cable distribution and caching of video for HBO Go. They could pretty easily do the same for Netflix; considering Netflix is basically HBO that's sold outside the cable companies at this point. HBO does in effect pay the cable companies for distribution in that the cable companies take a percentage of the monthly HBO subscription fee that the customer pays, so I don't see why Netflix shouldn't. I think a lot of geeks are in love with net neutrality because they see it as a fairness thing and think it will keep the cable companies from gouging them. In reality, it's just about cost allocation. Companies are going to take their profits under net neutrality or not; and the profit margins on cable aren't astronomically high. Netflix would never have gotten off the ground under true network neutrality; the costs have to be allocated somewhere. If you want pure speed though; metered billing is the way to go. Look at how fast mobile data has become in the US relative to the rest of the world -- a large part of that is because it's profitable for Verizon and AT&T to have customers use more data. Businesses are going to make their profits and regulation isn't going to have much effect on the prices that consumers pay -- but under the right rules, if you create a situation where companies can make more money by providing a better service, everyone wins.

Option 3 is data caps and/or metered billing. It's not exactly the most consumer-friendly option, but the ISPs would love to do it that way if they could.

by exelius 13y ago

Option 3 is data caps and/or metered billing. It's not exactly the most consumer-friendly option, but the ISPs would love to do it that way if they could.

pessimizer 13y ago

I love metered billing. The problem with it is that the video streamers will discover how much more bandwidth than everyone else they're using, and AT&T and Comcast's all-you-can-eat video services that use the same wire will look a lot more attractive to them. Ultimately, that may be a threat to network neutrality as the prices are raised on the metered internet in order to shift bandwidth to those siloed TV services, and the public won't care because they're not streaming video over the open internet anymore.

exelius 13y ago
Well, the reason it works for all-you-can-eat video services is that the cable companies are providing a distribution service to the content owners. So for HBO, they provide both cable distribution and caching of video for HBO Go. They could pretty easily do the same for Netflix; considering Netflix is basically HBO that's sold outside the cable companies at this point. HBO does in effect pay the cable companies for distribution in that the cable companies take a percentage of the monthly HBO subscription fee that the customer pays, so I don't see why Netflix shouldn't. I think a lot of geeks are in love with net neutrality because they see it as a fairness thing and think it will keep the cable companies from gouging them. In reality, it's just about cost allocation. Companies are going to take their profits under net neutrality or not; and the profit margins on cable aren't astronomically high. Netflix would never have gotten off the ground under true network neutrality; the costs have to be allocated somewhere. If you want pure speed though; metered billing is the way to go. Look at how fast mobile data has become in the US relative to the rest of the world -- a large part of that is because it's profitable for Verizon and AT&T to have customers use more data. Businesses are going to make their profits and regulation isn't going to have much effect on the prices that consumers pay -- but under the right rules, if you create a situation where companies can make more money by providing a better service, everyone wins.