What Kind of Alternate Business Models Could ISPs Use?

esocid writes "After reading multiple stories over the past few months about the practices of ISPs within and outside of the US I have started to actually contemplate the benefits of the pay-per-use broadband service. Monopolistic practices have strangled broadband to the throttled money-draining cesspool that it is today. Would a pay-per-use option, or some other strategy, be better than the flat fee offered by companies today? When you think about it you are paying for an XMbps connection, when in actuality you get an 65-85%XMbps connection that you may or may not use all of the time. In addition to that, speaking as a Comcast customer, you get a throttled connection that limits your usage of certain protocols. Essentially you pay about $60-70 for a connection that you only squeeze maybe $35-45 worth of usage out of it. If a pay-per-usage option were implemented, how do you think the best way to charge for it would be? Is there some other scheme that would deliver customers the kind of QOS and value they seek?"

Comments

first post

[shentino]

I am myself in favor of a "you only get charged for what you actually get".

I only hope that commercial interests aren't so incentivized to oversell flat-rate fat pipes to refuse to change their model.

Overselling and undercutting is profitable, especially if you're a monopoly.

Re:first post

[electrictroy]

I just noticed your signature:
"Patriotism is akin to racism."

No, not really. Yes sometimes patriotism CAN be twisted into racism (jingoism), but patriotism can also be a rational conclusion of logical thought. Quoting Benjamin Franklin, "Where freedom lives, there is my country." --- A rational form of patriotism based upon the ideal of liberty, not location or race.