Metered Bandwidth Internet Pricing is coming

[hey_moe]

This is gonna burn your bacon >> http://www.dailytech.com/Metered+Bandwidth+Internet+Pricing+is+Coming+Says+ ACA/article14996.htm Bad enough we are is a recession but this is just around the corner.

[Z-PurpleBubble]

Well, that is allready partly so in Belgium. Over here we have up- and download quota. Go over them and you have a choice: pay more and stay on broadband, don't pay and be put on smallband.

Good thing that the quota are fairly high: In my case about 70 Gigs/month.

On the other hand, we were hoping that the system would change to the current american system. Obviously, that is not going to happen anymore...

PB

[Buddha13]

Hi all,
We basically have this in the UK with most service providers.They have a basic package with depending who you are with a 2-4gb allowance to download.If you want more you pay for more.Some like Tiscali who I am with just use what they call fair usage.They just monitor what amount you download.If you go above what they think is not fair they slow your speed down.I download anything between 50-100gb a month and they have never slowed or done anything to my account.

Buddha13

[Cazzie]

You know Moe, as much as I like the Internet and all, when that comes to pass, I may start living a normal life again, start back building models, go outdoors more often, constructional things around the house, etc. Sooner or later the party has to end.

Sad, but greed can only go so far with me and I say "that's it" and go about my way and laugh when I read the obits after some rich MF leaves this mortal coil.

Caz

[stansdds]

You know Moe, as much as I like the Internet and all, when that comes to pass, I may start living a normal life again, start back building models, go outdoors more often, constructional things around the house, etc. Sooner or later the party has to end.

Sad, but greed can only go so far with me and I say "that's it" and go about my way and laugh when I read the obits after some rich MF leaves this mortal coil.

Caz
Same here, internet gets too expensive, it will get cut from my budget. Last year, Comcast instituted a 250GB monthly limit, I'm sure that once everyone else institutes limits we will see those limits get lower and lower. And let's not forget that every government in the world (except China) is financially strapped, so I would not be surprised to see some heavy taxes placed on internet usage.

It's a global recession and that means we will all soon be behind the :icon34:

:isadizzy:

[FengZ]

yup, this is just the first step. These big companies want to make money, and right now, the internet, in most part, is not very regulated.

I believe the next step after Metered Download is Regional Download. Basically, each country will only let you access websites within their own. If you want to access Europe from the US, then you need to add that fee. This way, the government can add a tax to the internet....so virtual stores can't no longer sell to the rest of the world unless they pay each country's "access fee" or aka "internet tax." I'm sure this will come in the next few years....judging from the types of investments i've seen on the Silicon Valley side...this is definitely coming.

Right now, it's too easy to setup a virtual shop using an offshore account, and sell products from there. The government won't see a dime of your sales until you pay yourself the domestic salary (but you can keep the rest in the offshore account). By taxing each transaction from country to country, the government can collect tax from every sale; just like in the real world. Right now, they are loosing out on billions and billions of "virtual sales" and they know it...

-feng

[GT182]

Same here as Cazzie and Stan..... if it gets to be as bad as cable TV, then I too will go back to a semi normal life. Cable has been screwing us over for awhile, and it's only a matter of time broadband providers here do the same... as Moe said.

What burns my bacon is that they do as they want... give you less for more money. I'm paying over $102.00/month for basic cable and basic broadband. In this last month alone Comcast has dropped 3 more channels we watch. With the religious, Spanish and Mid Eastern language channels added, I'm almost ready to call it quits now. Why do I have to pay for something I don't watch? Make them like HBO and Cinimax... you want to watch it... pay for it yourself. Actually we should be able to pick what we want to watch and pay accordingly. We're even paying for local channels that are supposed to be free.

And to top it off, these companies are a monoply in their areas. They need competition and/or the government to step in and say..."Enough is enough!" And that goes for the other end the cable companies get their feeds from too.