For those who stream Netflix/Hulu...

[Charade]

You pay for every gallon of water you use; you should pay for every bit of data you consume.

Most people pay for that "gallon of water" but quite often only end up "drinking" a small portion of it. Sometimes very little. Few people drink all their allotted water.

Maybe we should just go full circle back to the days where you paid by the minute. That would truly be "paying for every drop you consume". I've lived that back in the 80s and would not want to go back. Right now we're seeing the providers adjust to market demands by offering tiered services in the form of speed and volume. Don't stream or care about downloading a file in 1 minute vs 3? Many providers are offering choices to accommodate those users. It's interesting that back when Comcast (that's all I get around here (Verizon just installed FIOS a year or two ago) started offering broadband, the DL rate was a fraction of what it is today. Now they offer several speed tiers. The only issue I have (I live with it because I choose to pay Comcast) is they charge $X for just internet and $Y for internet if you get basic TV service. The price ends up being about the same. I wished they would offer just bare internet at the $Y price.

 

[Charade]

One "issue". Municipalities won't let Verizon "cherry pick" and only offer FiOS in the more affluent areas. The more customers who order VOD through vendors like Neflix instead of through Verizon's VOD the less motivation Verizon has for FiOS.

Verizon denies it but I wonder if their original plan was to ignore some communities.

If you get VOD from Netflix, it has to be delivered somehow. Verizon wants a piece of that action by offering TV and VOD. It's in their best interest to offer FIOS and price it competitively so people will use their TV/video services.

I'm not a big fan of governments forcing companies to provide services where they'll surely lose money by installing expensive infrastructure if there's not a market to pay for it.

 

[bicker]

Most people pay for that "gallon of water" but quite often only end up "drinking" a small portion of it. Sometimes very little. Few people drink all their allotted water.

There are many other uses for water. And indeed, people waste bandwidth as much as they waste water.

Maybe we should just go full circle back to the days where you paid by the minute. That would truly be "paying for every drop you consume".

At this point, technology can support paying by the 1/6th minutes... paying for each 10 seconds.

I've lived that back in the 80s and would not want to go back.

I lived through the 1980s too, and I wouldn't want to go back to the relatively negative investment climate I suffered through late in the decade.

Right now we're seeing the providers adjust to market demands by offering tiered services in the form of speed and volume. Don't stream or care about downloading a file in 1 minute vs 3? Many providers are offering choices to accommodate those users.

I don't see a problem with package deals, as long as light-usage customers aren't subsidizing heavy-usage customers. Having enough graduated packages is basically the same as metered service.