'Internet Metering' Might Hit Major US Providers

by Rob Walker | June 16, 2008 at 12:04 pm | 128 views | add comment

Internet metering - that is, throttling of users based on what kind of data someone downloads or how much of it - might become a normal part of internet life, says a column in the New York Times.

Comcast, AT&T and Time Warner Cable have all announced plans to try out metered bandwidth over the next few months. This would charge certain users more based on how much they use.

The surprising thing is, according to studies the vast majority of consumption isn't "illegal" peer 2 peer downloading, but streaming video like youtube and voice over internet programs like Skype.

Users would pay more if they went over their 'limit', sometimes to the tune of $1 per extra 4 megs.

Should those who use more bandwidth pay more per month for Internet service? The New York Times points out that Internet service providers are currently exploring the idea; Time Warner Cable is conducting an "Internet metering" test in one Texas market, while Comcast has said it would expand its strategy to slow down the Web traffic of so-called bandwidth hogs at peak consumption times.
AT&T, meanwhile, said it was considering consumption-based pricing last week: "Based on current trends, total bandwidth in the AT&T network will increase by four times over the next three years," the company said.

New York City - The largest Internet Service Provider in the United States has announced that it believes Internet Metering is something that is eventually inevitable.

AT&T is the largest of the different Internet Service Providers in the United States, and it views the plan that Time Warner Cable and Comcast have imposed on their users as inevitable.

Comcast and Time Warner are imposing different types of data throttling and data capping online metering because they feel that some users of the Internet are using more than their share and they make the Internet unstable, and unbalanced.

Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) has just issued a report that backs up claims by many Internet service providers that video viewing over the Web is gobbling up huge quantities of network capacity and the problem is only going to get worse. The Cisco Visual Networking Index (PDF) predicts that IP traffic will nearly double every two years to 2012.

Released Monday, the 2007-2012 forecast projects that IP traffic will grow at a combined annual rate of 46%.

THE END OF THE FREE RIDE?....Today, most internet users pay a flat monthly fee that doesn't change regardless of their activity level. According to Time Warner, the result is that 5% of their customers account for over half of their network's overall capacity, and they're now planning to make that 5% pay for the privilege:

Here's something we hope doesn't catch on; going back to the dark ages with metered internet use. That's what Time Warner is just 'metering out' to its cable customers in the US from Thursday, with users charged $1 for every gigabyte over they go over their monthly allowance, says AP.

The number two ISP in the U.S., Time Warner Cable, will test charging Beaumont, Texas users based on the level of their downloading activity.

Read more about it at "Time Warner: Download Too Much and You Might Pay $30 a Movie," "Time Warner Links Web Prices with Usage," "Time Warner Metered Pricing: Not the Solution," and "Time Warner to Test Metered Web Use."