Breakdown of Bandwidth Costs?

WCityMike asks: "What is the origin of the cost of bandwidth? For instance, if I'm being charged for an apple, I know that, theoretically, the cost of that apple is going towards the purchase of apple seeds, the land on which the apple trees are grown, the fertilizer and water that helps the trees grow, and the salaries of those who pick the apples, clean them, box them, and send them to market. When an Internet provider charges someone hundreds of dollars in bandwidth costs because they were Slashdotted (or Farked) and their bandwidth use shot up, what costs have the Internet provider incurred, and why does it cost them what it does? Is there usually any sort of markup going on along the line, or are people just passing along their own expenses down the line to the end user?" It would be interesting to note the most important factor contributing to bandwidth costs. How much of the total costs are tied to infrastructure versus the human component (technicians, sysadmins, technical support and so forth)?

Comments

Re:Because they are "price searchers"

[Mononoke]

I just finished an economics course in college, and ISPs are probably what can be termed "price searchers." I imagine there is certainly some extra cost per extra unit of bandwidth, but largely I imagine this is negligible--the bandwidth is there whether or not it is used.

In other words, you just don't know.

Thanks.

As a few other posters have noted, ISPs are out to make money.

That's what businesses do. Didn't they discuss that in your economics course?