[RTC List] Your Future Broadband Will Cost More, for Less

[Kathy Moxon]

I don't totally understand the rationale of user limits--or is it just a new pricing structure (instead of one price you have to pay for what you use) and are they moving to pay for what you use because broadband capacity is scarce? Or just because they can?

I am at a broadband meeting in San Francisco (tomorrow) and one of the topics of conversation might well be what kind of things are telecoms doing that thwart the deployment of ubiquitous broadband within the state and what /might/should they do differently that would increase the use of broadband for increased economic benefit and improved well being...

Any messages I should carry?

Kathleen E.Moxon
CAO/Director of Programs
Humboldt Area Foundation
373 Indianola Road
Bayside, CA 95524
707-442-2993
707-442-9072 (fax)

-----Original Message-----
From: list-bounces at redwoodtech.org [mailto:list-bounces at redwoodtech.org] On Behalf Of JBilderback
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 9:38 PM
To: list at redwoodtech.org
Subject: Re: [RTC List] Your Future Broadband Will Cost More, for Less

> AT&T this week said it would join other broadband providers 
  in trialing tiered broadband

from the AT&T "news release":

" Britton said that 5 percent of AT&T's users account for 46 
percent of network traffic, and the top 1 percent represents 21 
percent of overall use. He said the trial project would not affect 
95 percent of AT&T users."

It's interesting that the above statement of the problem leads to 
the following solution:

" The caps for new users are tiered according to the broadband 
service they receive, with the lowest tier, at 768 Kbps, allotted 
a 20-GB monthly limit. Subscribers who pay for 1.5 Mbps, 3 Mbps 
and 6 Mbps will receive monthly limits of 40, 60 and 80 GB, 
respectively."

Which is obviously just a lame excuse to raise rates and has 
little if anything to do with the supposed 5% of users abusing 
their service agreement.



_______________________________________________
List mailing list
List at redwoodtech.org
http://redwoodtech.org/mailman/listinfo/list_redwoodtech.org