Death Of The Internet

[Jextel]

i hope this is BS because the internet is my life...

[Boon]

Here is a write up on the "metered Internet". Again what is being said in the video posted above is very unlikely. But this story below is more than likely where its going.

Times wire report

Article Launched: 06/03/2008 06:13:20 AM MDT

NEW YORK - You're used to paying extra if you use up your cell phone

minutes, but will you be willing to pay extra if your home computer goes

over its Internet allowance?

Time Warner Cable Inc. customers -- and, later, others -- may have to, if

the company's test of metered Internet access is successful.

On Thursday, new Time Warner Cable Internet subscribers in Beaumont, Texas,

will have monthly allowances for the amount of data they upload and

download. Those who go over will be charged $1 per gigabyte, a Time Warner

Cable executive told the Associated Press.

Metered billing is an attempt to deal fairly with Internet usage, which is

very uneven among Time Warner Cable's subscribers, said Kevin Leddy, Time

Warner Cable's executive vice president of advanced technology.

Just 5 percent of the company's subscribers take up half of the capacity on

local cable lines, Leddy said. Other cable Internet service providers report

a similar distribution.

"We think it's the fairest way to finance the needed investment in the

infrastructure," Leddy said.

Metered usage is common overseas, and other U.S. cable providers are looking

at ways to rein in heavy users. Most have download caps, but some keep the

caps secret so as not to alarm the majority of users, who come nowhere close

to the limits. Time Warner Cable appears to be the first major ISP to charge

for going over the limit: Other companies warn, then suspend

Ahh this concept is very very different to what's suggested in that video and already, as mentioned, very commonplace overseas.

I think the US is one of the few countries that still has unreigned internet.

Personally I have never NOT had metered internet...

[rollin]

Boon I was just wondering. trying to get someones opinion of the US from out side of it. your the one that brought up the fact that your happy you dont live here; so I was just wondering.

[Boon]

Boon I was just wondering. trying to get someones opinion of the US from out side of it. your the one that brought up the fact that your happy you dont live here; so I was just wondering.

Fair enough

I'm from the happy little island of New Zealand.

To put a outsiders view on it that's mostly appropriate for this thread... America seems like a really paranoid nation, but there seems to be a lot to be paranoid about in America What seems odd is people seem to get tied up in worrying about wierd things like the government clogging their intertubes while there are apparently much bigger much REALER issues that need to be dealt with...

Just an opinion/perspective, mind you

Edited June 17, 2008 by Boon

[rollin]

Im pickin up what your puttin down. on the things people "worry" about..

[maademperor]

verizon and comcast (to a lesser extent) have been testing metered internet for some time, its gonna suck but it had to happen eventually. Unfortunately the consumer will not seen any benefits of it that I can see...so what if 5% of customers account for 50% of the UTILIZED bandwidth, there is still plenty of throughput available and you have to look at the customer base to see what demographics you are really dealing with...when I was younger in college we were on the net all the time playing games, researching and shopping (ah the good old days of ebay ) but my dad was just on there to send two emails a day...it wasnt me over using it or him under using it, it was just both of us using it for what its worth to us (not to mention some households have 5 people online and others like my dad only have the one). Incidentally, I read some crazy stat that said 5% of americans pay 95% of all federal taxes collected?

unfortunately again, this will give further cause to look at what data is being moved and to what purpose thus technically invading my privacy (although they already do that). 1$ a gigabyte isnt much of a cost but that could quickly add up and the price will surely be 5$ a gig within 3 years of implementation. not to mention a gigabyte aint much these days. Thats like one game demo...and with video game consoles joining the mix of online components this could get pricey. A buddy of mine got one of comcast's "stop pirating stuff" emails cause he was uploading home movies to his web server in excess of a couple of gigs. they thought he was uploading pirated movies and kept spiking his connection everytime he tried.

as for what we worry about in this country, tell me about it. I see people's homes getting foreclosed on but they refused to sell thier $500+ a month bmw and insisted on running up credit card debt to get those 3 plasmas whatnot...meanwhile we are occupying a foriegn country for the last 5 years for not good reason...

[techaninna]

I guess where I was going with my post was more geared toward the Tier 1 internet Providers and not the Government. It's the big companies wanting more money. The reason is it cost money to build a bigger infrastructure and they don't want to wait as long for a return. So the people who use it most will help pay.