http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/technolo...&ei=5087%0A

Ouch, ouch, ouch. I can't even FATHOM my monthly bill if this happens.

(No, it's not a Rick Roll)

This would seriously suck!

So they're going to penalize the bandwidth users and prize the ones who don't go online?




Greedy, greedy, greedy...


Oh yea, this totally BYTEs

I'm with you... That's gonna suck.

You think you use over 40 gigs a month? I have no idea what I use.


Probably would put a cramp into services like Pictage

Uhm, yeah, most certainly. My average final wedding is 4-8 gigs, e-sessions are 1-2, plus I watch TV online while working, the XBox 360, my kids play games online, yeah, I EASILY use WAY more than that.

I bet Tami uses 40+ gigs just posting to OSP

+100000

or

+00101011001100010011000000110000001100000011000000110000

Ouch!!!!

Tami is probably safe over in London.

This will pass... I think a lot of Australian ISPs do this already, but I think it is just a "fad" that will die after awhile.

Is the Internet growing? Yes... is usage and demand growing? Yes. If don't do anything will there be issues? Oh yes.

But the thing is, the technology exists to increase capacity... during the dot-com days TONS of fiber optic cables were laid. Now we just need to light them up to keep the backbone infrastructure working. Then there are IP addresses, right now most of the world is on the older IPv4, which is going to run out somewhat quickly... but IPv6 has been around for awhile - it will just take time before more and more software and hardware companies start deploying it.

Not everyone is looking at these "pay-per-byte" fees... Verizon with their FiOS service is spending BILLIONS every year to upgrade their network and get fiber to every house... It will take them awhile to get a ROI, but they know that is the future and they are future-proofing their network. I saw in a magazine that Verizon has spent over $62 billion in capital expenditures over the last four years. MORE than any other company...

Will these upgrades cost money? Yes... but the technology is fairly inexpensive these days...

hey.... i resemble that remark!!!!!!!

I think content providers like itunes, amazon, NBC and others, will keep it from happening... unless they think they can make some money out of it.

Heard about this months ago when they started talking about it in Texas... looks like the first in what will probably become a wave of ideas on how to monetize something that has made other things (services, products, etc) virtually free.

To the point about Verizon FioS, what I heard from a tech back when I was working at Costco was that once they get a solid base, they're just gonna raise those rates...

To the Pictage cramp point, this seems to make options like PickPic more viable if I'm not mistaken (been looking at it as a solution anyway; only requires thumbnails, no?)

This could be REALLY bad for those who upload vids to Youtube, watch TV online, transfer files across the net to their own servers, or basically do more online than the average 55 year old who want this bill to come into effect.

I heard something this morning about water charges going up too. When they charge us for water and internet, you know it's going to get bad.

I think it would be awesome to see all of us that use a lot of bandwidth to just drop our service - on the same day, at the same time.

Y'know how much money these companies would lose!

But would they care? Nope, they'll just jack up the charges on that 55 yr. old Matt was talking about.

I almost threw the newspaper when I read this at brunch yesterday (into the pool at a lovely Beaver Creek hotel, but I digress...) What got my goat about the article is that they ISPs are trying to say that it's so that people who use less don't have to pay as much. BULL! It's so that they can make a buck more off of something that is literaly changing the scope of everything we do. Just when I get my parents to start to communicate, no they'll be afraid to use the Internet too. They won't even get call waiting because it's $2.50 a month more.

Best part of the article...

"The Time Warner plan has the potential to bring Internet use full circle, back to the days when pay-as-you-go pricing held back the Web’s popularity. In the early days of dial-up access, America Online and other providers offered tiered pricing, in part because audio and video were barely viable online. Consumers feared going over their allotted time and bristled at the idea that access to cyberspace was billed by the hour.

In 1996, when AOL started offering unlimited access plans, Internet use took off and the online world started moving to the center of people’s daily lives...."

Does anyone know if PPA is on this?

Not much since you've already been billed for the month

okay, another reason for me to hate technology....

i don't know about hating technology as much as just really disliking the greedy fat heads of the industry who don't already make enough money. i'm sure it'll get worse before it gets any better; that's usually how new great companies get their start: they offer a solution to a problem.

LOL! You're right!

Those dirty.... Okay, drop the service for 3 months.

I know I could go that long if I had to.
Anyone want to join me in a protest if this goes through?

Isn't that how it goes though? They get you so hooked on something where you can't live without it and then start increasing the price.

They could jack up the gas as much as they want. We're so dependant on it, we'd still pay have to to sacrifice other things. It's crazy to think about!

But I agree, hopefully the big boys like iTunes, Amazon and other services that rely on people downloading lots and lots of songs will put a stop to it. Surely it would hurt them and their pocket books and progress...

You're correct Rich... I was just describing that to my dad on the phone today.

I said, "It's like a drug pusher! They get you hooked and then start going after the big money. But you're so hooked you'll do whatever it takes to have it."

No wonder it's called a 'WEB' - what happens when a bug gets caught up in a spider's web? ...

No, that would be only 11000011010100000
I hate cell phone plans... I would hate that even more.

When I talked to comcast one time they tried pushing me on the "business" plan for $99/mo.

HELL no. I'm not using that much for business. I do more personally than I do for business but damn, I mean a Microsoft service pack is huge as are several other things I download. Media companies like comcast that are also trying to push phone too should understand people are going to use more and more bandwidth.. Just stupid. I wish FIOS was in our area, but I'm not in the right part of the state. Why do the hick sections (no offense to those living there) get it before the populated areas??????

I would be seriously screwed on this. Besides the gigabytes of photos I upload every month I've got Xbox Live and we download all of our movies and TV shows from iTunes.

I agree-- that was the part of the article that stood out to me the most, and it may be true. So many companies rely on the unlimited access in the Internet. It saves companies a lot of money (no packaging, creating physical media, shipping plants, etc.) and is actually much better for the environment. It really would be a HUGE step backwards in the direction that technology has taken us.

I, too, wonder if this is something the PPA would help fight because of the effect on Photographers (more than uploading our services, but even our clients/their friends being willing to look through online galleries to purchase prints).

My internet provider (Rogers) has been doing this for years. They have it set up where you can decide ahead of time how much you think you will use.

However, I had no idea what this meant about 7 years ago when they sent me a bill for $xxx extra since I was in the "download music and video" stage in my life (so past that now). And I freaked! I called them and they said that's how it works.

Even now I see that they still do that.

Not a big shocker here.