I think that bandwidth caps are a slightly stupid way for ISPs to look at what they sell and why people buy it. I think that things will change, especially as decent bandwidth becomes available in the last mile. A few months ago I posted about pricing models and how they might evolve: http://www.fiberevolution.com/2008/03/ruminations-abo.html
I think, ultimately, that the issue is about competition. If given the choice, customers will favour non-capped offers over capped offers, so apping only happens if there's too little competition or if all available options involve capping.
What I find surprising is that in a capped ecosystem (ie. every ISP offers capped only) it only takes one player to launch a non-capped acquisition strategy. I'd be curious to understand why none of the Australian ISPs (to take an examble of an all-capped country, as far as i can tell) have decided to acquire customers using that argument as marketing...
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I think that bandwidth caps are a slightly stupid way for ISPs to look at what they sell and why people buy it. I think that things will change, especially as decent bandwidth becomes available in the last mile. A few months ago I posted about pricing models and how they might evolve: http://www.fiberevolution.com/2008/03/ruminations-abo.html I think, ultimately, that the issue is about competition. If given the choice, customers will favour non-capped offers over capped offers, so apping only happens if there's too little competition or if all available options involve capping. What I find surprising is that in a capped ecosystem (ie. every ISP offers capped only) it only takes one player to launch a non-capped acquisition strategy. I'd be curious to understand why none of the Australian ISPs (to take an examble of an all-capped country, as far as i can tell) have decided to acquire customers using that argument as marketing...