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A Layman's Guide To Bandwidth Pricing
narramissic links to IT World's A Layman's Guide to Bandwidth Pricing, writing "Time Warner Cable has, for now, abandoned the tiered pricing trials that raised the ire of Congressman Eric Massa, among others. And, as some nice data points in a New York Times article reveal, it's good for us that they did. For instance, Comcast says it costs them $6.85 per home to double the internet capacity of a neighborhood. But the bit of the Times article that we should commit to memory is this: 'If all Time Warner customers decided one day not to check their e-mail or download a single movie, the company's costs would be no different than on a day when every customer was glued to the screen watching one YouTube video after another.'"
Why don't homeowners associations for neighborhoods provide internet, like they do for other utilities? You pay a flat fee "last mile" when you build your house just like you do with water/septic/electric.
The homeowner's association runs the utilities. Just like with everything else, they contract for a say 100mbit guaranteed line, and then the 20 or whatever homes connect to that. The homeowners association polices problems/abuse, much like it does with everything else. It works because: you don't want to piss off your neighbors.
More generally, why can't I buy into a "1 gigabit pool" with a cable company? Make it blatantly obvious that they're overselling, and let the user decide. Company A says "we've got a gigabit of bandwith with 100 users", Company B says "we've got a gigabit of bandwith with 150 users", and I decide.