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The Facts & Fiction of Bandwidth Caps
wjamesau writes "What's the deal with broadband caps, like Comcast's 250GB/month data transfer limit, which goes into effect tomorrow? Om Malik at GigaOM has a whitepaper laying out the facts and fiction about Comcast's short-sightedness (which other carriers are mimicking), and how it will impact the future Internet: 'Given the growth trend due to consumers' changes in content consumption, today's power users are tomorrow's average users. By 2012, the bill for data access is projected to be around $215 per month.' Ouch." The white paper is embedded at the link using Scribd; for a PDF version you'll have to give up an email address.
You have to wonder, though, if caps and all the "Bu$ine$$ Cla$$" tiers providers create to get around them aren't just an attempt to prop up their margins in a world they know will be bandwidth-demanding and likely to pay for it. At least in the near term (5-10 years), there just aren't a lot of FTH-type alternatives broadly available or planned (or even financable in the current capital market..).
Not to mention in the case of cable, propping up their existing content distribution system. (nice snarky way to influence your content vendors trying to send shows on the internet when you can cripple their viewers ability to download them, thus forcing them to be reliant on your TV distribution system).
I like to believe in the free market too, but the manipulated and highly regulated "free market" we actually have seems to be more about making rich insiders wealthy and buttfucking everyone else.