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Preventing Broadband Price-Gouging?

Wrighter the Pessimist asks: "I've been seeing a lot of stories recently about cable modem companies raising rates and baby bells winning monopolies on broadband. It seems that indeed cable companies are already raising rates, or will be in the near future. Shouldn't broadband be getting cheaper, with improvements in technology? Or has demand already surpassed the capability? Or, have the monopolies just decided to give themselves a raise? What can we as consumers do to prevent prices from going sky high?" The first article mentions the need for higher pricing for users who tend to use more than their fair share of the bandwidth. The second article is about AT&T raising its rates, which is not news to many Slashdot readers, I'm sure. I would think that in situations like this, that a tiered pricing approach might be better than applying a flat rate. Think you are going to be a high bandwidth user? Pay a fair price to your upstream. Web and e-mail only? Pay less. So do you think the current trend in broadband pricing is fair, or are broadband providers pricing themselves out of the market?

4 of 400 comments (clear)

  1. 404? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Fucking 404 nigger lost me the FP. Shit.

  2. att broadband by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Intresting to note that their cable modem phone and cable are also going up. They want 100% of your bill without offering a discount. They suck.

  3. ASFSDF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    99TH POST

  4. Re:Repeat after me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Yeah... 19th century England was a glorious place, idiot.