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AT&T Embraces BitTorrent, Considers Usage-Based Pricing
Wired is running a story about AT&T's chief technical officer, John Donovan. He contrasts his view of BitTorrent and P2P in general against the controversial policies adopted by other ISPs. Donovan also explains why AT&T is considering usage-based pricing, citing the cost of network upgrades which only affect a small number of users. AT&T is expected to test the new pricing scheme later this year, which should give them plenty of time to see how Time Warner's customers respond to the idea.
"'I don't view any of our customers, under any circumstances, as pirates -- I view them as users,' Donovan said. 'A heavy user is not a bad customer.' What he wants to do is gently encourage more efficient usage of his network, and usage-based pricing may be one of the ways that happens. Such measures may not even be necessary, as Donovan admits that users self-adjust their habits to take advantage of off-peak times. For instance, he said, BitTorrent on the company's network peaks around 4 a.m., when other traffic is at an ebb. Overall P2P traffic accounts for about 20 percent of the network's usage, Donovan said."
If users are self restricting themselves to off-peak why the need for usage based pricing at all? AT&T received federal funding to get a fiber network in as well, so far they have failed to do so.
Instead of trying to make internet more expansive the United States telecoms want to make it cost more. I mean jesus christ we are one of the worst developed nations when it comes to internet connectivity. In Europe you can get double our speeds for the price of dial-up. Obviously their is very little costs on simply maintaining a network yet they continue to charge and rake in profits. These telecoms have no excuse. We fork over our money so you can maintain and grow your network...use it. Upgrade the Seconds Mile and start putting more efficient internet pipes. Obviously it has gotten to a point where it is becomes almost as bad as the oil companies. Just raking in profits and not using it for anything.
No, this is rather like those night usage electricity tariffs for washing machines, dishwashers, etc...
For home packages the ISP just needs to set a low peak cap during the evening and a high off-peak cap during the rest of the day (e.g. ADSL24 in the UK).
Whatever protocol you use (BT, eMule, or HTTP download) doesn't interest the ISP, all they want to do is move non-interactive usage to off-peak times so that interactive usage during the evening works for everyone.
Most users will understand if things are set things out clearly at the start instead of suddenly receiving a fair usage warning e-mails when some mysterious unknown limit is hit. Indeed many P2P users may choose an ISP with this kind of peak/off-peak tariff as they know exactly what they signed up for.
Experience proves that this simply isn't true. ISPs in Finland (where I live), and several other countries that I have no personal experience with, provide ridiculously fast unlimited connections for very reasonable prices already and keep making a profit. I have a 100Mbit connection for 43e a month, and similar connections are getting more and more prevalent. You could also get an unlimited 3G data plan for 10e a month. Finns have a long history of heavy p2p usage as well, yet the ISPs aren't even complaining, stay in business just fine and my connection at least isn't throttled at all, *true* unlimited bandwidth. They do use QOS, but no artificial bandwidth caps or whatever, just prioritization for low-latency use. Just because your anti-competitive "free market" (we have actual competition thanks to some government regulation of the market, tell me again how your system is so much better) can't do it right doesn't mean it can't be done.
Nobody expects the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal.