Confessions of a Network Manager (Part 2)

I promised more on Network Management following my Part 1 post a few weeks ago.  Today, I'd like to discuss downstream management.

Why Do We Have to Manage Downstream Usage?

We, at Insight, go to great lengths to handle network management fairly.  We recognize that the Internet is a shared network, and that all network managers, ISP's and backbone providers alike, first should provision responsibly and then make sure their networks don't get clogged up. 

There are two factors increasing network managers' need to be diligent about the oversight of their network's bandwidth demands:

• dramatic customer growth

• even more dramatic increasing usage patterns. 

The first one is obviously a good thing for the business.  The second is not-so-good because it increases bandwidth demands without increasing revenue, a result of most ISP's long-standing policy of flat-rate pricing.

"Dear Valued Customer, Did You Know..."

At Insight, we manage extreme downstream usage openly and fairly, first by simply sending a notice to customers that they are using an extremely heavy amount of bandwidth.  Chances are, over 99% of our customers will never hear from us on this issue.  Those who do usually are downloading enough data to load an entire hard drive of a fairly pricey computer in a matter of hours or days.   

Typically, more than half of those contacted did not even know they were using their connection so heavily.  In those cases, we simply help them identify the cause. Whether it is helping the customer install password protection on an unsecured router, finding a background program running on their computer which they were unaware of, or simply by telling Junior to cool it, about 60% of the contacted customers voluntarily correct the problem.

For the other 40%, many are willing to change their downloading patterns when they learn that the Internet is a shared system.  Most are perfectly willing to do some of their heaviest downloading during non-peak hours. We help them with ways they can do that without having to give up their sleep.

"You're Doing WHAT With Your Residential Service?"

For those few remaining who can't jam their heavy usage into non-peak periods, we almost always find that they are using their residential service outside of the Terms of Service Agreement that they signed upon installation. For instance, often, we discover that they are running a small business server.  If they are unwilling to voluntarily comply with our request that they either cease their specific non-residential usage or upgrade to a business account so we can provision properly for their needs, we ultimately notify them of our intent to decline continuing service.

We absolutely never want to get to that point with any customer and we hardly ever do.  We consider that a failure in our relationship with a customer.  Luckily, we can practically count on one hand with whom those we have failed to come to a resolution.

Is Flat-Rate Billing Dead?

Some people advocate that ISP's simply set an acceptable limit for customers and tell them what it is.  Then, if you go over the limit, you pay for it.

I have written several posts about metered billing and other methods we could help to fairly distribute the cost of the necessary investment for ever-increasing usage patterns.  The idea is not to increase costs to the vast majority of customers, but to ask the heaviest consumers of bandwidth to contribute to the cost of providing it.

As more and more heavy usage comes from allowable residential applications, network managers will have to decide between increasing the base price of broadband service or to consider ways for those who consume the most bandwidth to pay to for it.  At Insight, no changes are contemplated in the near term but we continue to monitor the usage patterns and the alternatives to distribute the costs associated with provisioning for those patterns.

Comments

[Wyatt Ditzler]

Would Insight consider not metering or managing traffic as a marketing move to capture more business? Verizon, I think, has considered/made statements to that effect, maybe even Comcast?

Would there be such a market or do you think that a new means of ISP operations, metered or some unknown as of now, are unavoidable?

[sineswiper]

Well, as speeds increase from 5 to 10 to 20 Mbps and higher, the people who pay the same amount of money will be using more bandwidth. So, the ISPs get the same revenue, but they have to spend more money to support their existing customers.

At some point, it has to come to a head. Right now, it's just hard for customers to understand this POV. And it's not going to be easy for that 2% to understand that they are paying extra fees because ISPs can no longer pay for bigger and bigger bills just for a small minority of their customers. Most customers just want to surf the web, check their email, and run some online gaming.

So, flat-fee Internet without any caps or fees is not going to work in the long run. Either web sites will provide priority traffic fees (best case), or the 2% will pay extra fees, or the entire base service will go up (worse case). Or there may be some other solution, but SOMEBODY has to pay up for the extra usage.