NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Botnets and bandwidth caps
metering in europe for the consumer market has (here and there) always been present. you could have free access paid for only in traffic or "usage time" (and this is still the case for mobile phones) fixed line telco regulation in europe is based on ULL (unbundling of local loop), a sort of "must carry", by which the alternative operators can rent the access loop from the incumbent at a specified price. What the operator rents is the copper wire, not the bitstream implying that if he can provide 4 Mbps of sustained traffic he doesn't pay anyrhing more than if he could provide just 2Mbps. So the capacity-related price-differentiation does not occur at the access level (1) but rather from the exchange backhauling up to the core network (2). fact is that 80-85% of the infrastructure costs lie in the(1) access portion and the rest in (2). We must not forget that in the access portion you cannot have overbooking like you can have in (2). This implies that the cost difference between a full 2Mbps and a full 4Mbps access is not that significant. As a consequence, based on this wholesale regulations, in any given place where an altnet can purchase wholesale backhauling (3) to his NOC, there will (almost) always be an altnet who will offer a flat rate access. This is true when (3) is based on fibre allowing for cheap equipment upgrades and also where the incumbent is forced to offer nationwide wholesale (3) due to its significant market power which is often the case. As you might expect, metered broadband access really never took off. (except maybe for some "free bundles with voice lines" which routers were never turned on by users but helped just operators to tell they had "x broadband users"). For many reasons this regulatory structure and the market which emerged is not at all likely to change in the forseeble future. Amongst all the right issues you are discussing about metering, I suggest you consider as well, that a significant portion of the world is and will be going on a flat rate basis. Ciao, s. ___ http://blog.quintarelli.it ...... Original Message ....... On Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:37:32 -0500 (CDT) "Craig A. Finseth" <fin@finseth.com> wrote: > ... > This is by no means a new situation and one that has been handled both > by business and consumer ISP's alike before now. No need to cry wolf. > ... > >First, business contracts are handled very differetnly from consumer >ones. I don't think that we can reliably extrapolate from business to >consumer contracts here. > >Second, have we really had this situation before? The situation is: > >- major ISP >- publically stated bandwidth cap >- published hard "one byte over and you're off for life" policy > >In my understanding, most current ISPs have had "soft" caps where they >will work with you if there are problems (such as high usage). And, >while I'm sure that there are ISPs that have hard caps and hard >policies, they are likely to be small. > >So, I see several elements of this situation that really are new. >Whether it's crying wolf, time will tell. > >Craig >