GridStream Productions

According to an article I saw on G4 Tech TV, they're looking into putting a pay for what you download way of providing their internet service. People that do a lot of downloading would pay more than others that do not.

Of course, people that do a lot of downloading will not see that as fair and already there's a big uproar about it. It won't be affecting me at all (if at all) but what do others think?

From my view, there's two ways to look at it..

From a business model, the people that use the most bandwidth are the ones you make the least profit off of. Some you may even be losing money on depending on your pricing structure. Implementing a plan that causes those people to pay more is good. If you lose some of them to other businesses it doesn't matter that much because you're not making anything off them anyways.

From a customer model, this means that the standard "one price, do whatever" that we're used to doesn't apply any more and people that rely on heavy use for whatever they're doing (sharing files in a small business or downloading TV seasons from iTunes for example) are gonna be pissed off cause it messes with their own bottom line and restricts their internet use.

My overall opinion is that if Time Warner has enough money they don't really need to go raising prices like this and pissing people off. It's not worth the bad PR unless the ISP portion of their business is in danger of financial ruin.

Time Warner owns AOL, AOL implements this with their customer base. 'nuff said.

They (not Warner, but the largest ISP at that time here) tried this long ago in Norway, end result? Customers fled to other ISP's that had flat rates.
However as several ISP's and experts have said (and which has become more popular these last few years here), flat rate PLUS usage rate works best together as alternatives as usage rate may be cheaper for those who use Internet so little that flat rate is more expensive or need a cheap usage based for their summer holiday place or whatever.

Phone (both land and mobile) companies has done that a long time, a flat fee (maintenance + flat use fee) allowing you to call as much as you want, or usage fee (no maintenance fee as it's included with the usage fee instead).

But as far as I understand, Warner is testing out switching FROM flat fees TO usage rates. Now that's gonna piss folks off. Usage rate should be a alternative, this seems just wrong.
And lets not even get started on internet streaming of music and video services, imaging a usage rate when using services like that? Holy shit that's gonna get expensive fast. (and could kill the current nice attemps to digitally distribute music and movies legally) and what of MMO'ers? Or people that listen to GSP?

*grumble* good net hookups are expensive enough as it is.

Tiered Internet accounts are a plain fact of life in Australia.. The more you pay, the more you are allowed to download each month without being "throttled back" to dial up speeds..

eg - my ISP rate plan:

home 1 - $29.95 ADSL2+ speeds 500MB + 1GB $59.90
home 2 - $39.95 ADSL2+ speeds 2GB + 4GB $69.90
home 3 - $49.95 ADSL2+ speeds 7GB + 14GB $79.90
home 4 - $59.95 ADSL2+ speeds 10GB + 20GB $89.90
home 5 - $69.95 ADSL2+ speeds 20GB + 40GB $99.90
home 6 - $99.95 ADSL2+ speeds 40GB + 40GB $129.90
home 7 - $129.95 ADSL2+ speeds 60GB + 60GB $159.90

The 2 download figures are peak and off peak - peak is 12 midday till 2am off peak is 2am - midday. I am on the home 4 plan, so I pay $89.90 per month (that includes the monthly line rental). This is why I blow gaskets when I am forced to download any thing I cant actual make use of, It is really surprising how fast the monthly quota fills up!

Can't see it changing in Australia soon either, It has been this way since the 1st ISP's back in the 90's. Our ISP's and phone companies do suck, it's true. I still wouldn't want to live any place else

Can you get internode ADSL over there dyna? Might be worth a look price wise if you can.

Shigy wrote:Can you get internode ADSL over there dyna? Might be worth a look price wise if you can.

Err, the same package as I have now (30GB) through Internode is:
Home-Extreme-Boost
$74.95 ADSL2+ Speeds 30 Gbytes Shaped

add $29.95 line rental to that = $104.90.. I have the better deal....

Okay coolies