Will Your ISP Start Limiting Your Web Use?
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Some of the top Internet Service Providers are thinking about limiting how much a user can do on the internet, under basic packages. So if you hit your bandwidth limit in the middle of the month, you either have to pay more money or go the rest of the month without internet. For most, that is a big problem. Chances are, if I am awake and at home, I am in front of my computer. When I am not at home, I have my Blackberry Curve 8330.
If ISPs start curbing internet usage, I have a feeling that there will be a huge public outcry.
The Internet “is how we deliver our shows,” said Jim Louderback, chief executive of Revision3, a three-year-old media company that runs what it calls a television network on the Web. “If all of a sudden our viewers are worried about some sort of a broadband cap, they may think twice about downloading or watching our shows.”
Not only would this effect the customers, but it would cause a huge profit loss for companies who rely on other people using the internet for their income. Examples would be Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, EVE Online and it does not stop there. Think about companies such as NetFlix where users are starting to watch movies online. These services would start to become extinct because ISPs are charging more for the users who use more internet.
Other services such as Ustream.tv and Skype would go out of business in a heartbeat; the bandwidth costs of streaming and VoIP are enormous.
I’ve never realized how much my ISP influences what I do on the internet. It has always been there for me to use. I am not sure what I would do if I had a certain amount of bandwidth that I could use on a monthly basis.
What would you do if your ISP started to charge by the byte or limit bandwidth?
Comments welcome,
Justin Capasso
4 Comments
Doug
June 15th, 2008
at 4:52pm
Let me compare the topic of limiting Web use to when the Internet came into people’s houses back in the early-to-mid 1990s with dial-up. You could only be on-line for a certain amount of time a month. Because of that time limit, a lot of people switched to “always-on Internet.” Notice I didn’t say “High-Speed Internet.” I say this because a lot of people don’t care what their connection speed is, they just want to always be on and to not have to waste a phone line and time… “dialing up.”
If ISPs start limiting “always-on Internet” consumers are going to freak out and complain to their ISP. Whether or not this will help, I don’t know but the threat alone might discourage ISPs from doing this; at least I hope so.
george
June 15th, 2008
at 8:24pm
the problem is, these ultra billionair executives dont care what the common people think. i would be soooo mad if the internet was like that. the problem is, it could be…:(
Lucas Amanowicz
June 15th, 2008
at 9:01pm
My last ISP was doing that. It was over cable so the speed was great but they limited my bandwidth to 60gb per month. When I complained about shelling out almost $60 per month for internet service and then getting cut off halfway through the month they would just try to sell me a more expensive internet package. I finally had enough and switched to a local DSL provider. The transfer speeds aren’t as fast as the cable provider but the service is unlimited and I’ve been happy since. If more and more ISP’s start doing that, alot of individuals and companies will start to feel the sting.
Alan Curtis Montgomery
July 7th, 2008
at 8:11am
I would protest by refusing to use their services if I had ISPs to choose from who didn’t limit bandwidth but if I had no other option I would use them but complain to their customer service all the time, always pretend to have connectivity problems, start a blog stating how much I hate the ISP and the practice of charging for bandwidth, write to my congressional officials asking them to ban this practice, and begin a social movement for unlimited bandwidth.