To each according to his needs...

Karl Marx came up with a really bad idea that plunged half the world into the failed Communist experiment for generations.  It was communal living that subscribed to the principle of, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

Why do I mention that?  Well, Argo posted a comment a while back relating to the shared use of the Internet.  A few of you have become concerned that there is a crusade against P2P protocols and that perhaps I'm a part of it. 

The anti-P2P movement looks like desperation.
Like ISPs aren't ready for faster speeds on their networks and by playing the blame game "blaming customers for using the internet" really looks like a false finger pointing expedition.
Here's the real question... When did bandwidth become a form of communism?

Okay.  That's fair game.

As I have mentioned in previous posts (in two parts), the Internet, by its design is a shared asset. 

First let me say that I am very concerned about illegal content being transferred from person to person over the Internet.  But that doesn't mean that I believe P2P is illegal; there are plenty of perfectly legal P2P services.  However, that's not what challenges my business.  Consumption is.

As a network operator, I believe that I should cooperate with authorities to try to reduce the spread of pirated and other illegal content.  I believe that content owners are entitled to the benefits of their property and if we don't help to prevent electronic shoplifting, we endanger our entire content production system, which happens to be one of America's largest exports.

So from my own business point of view, I am naturally concerned about the quantity of bandwidth being used by P2P packet types.  As we've said before, its usage, compared to all other broadband applications, is hugely disproportionate to the number of people using it.  We simply can't provision economically for this type of usage for so few people without significantly raising the cost of broadband service for everyone.

We actually want to allow this type of heavy usage but the Internet is not a cooperative, as Karl Marx might have had it.  Logic dictates that we find ways to allocate the cost of such heavy usage to those who use it.  We have talked previously about two ways to offset some of those costs.  One is to have the people who use it pay for it.  The other is to have the businesses who use it to deliver products pay for it. 

There are those who argue that they have a right to all the bandwidth they can use.  I disagree, provided we provide plenty of notice about a change in policy and give customers the ability to alter their behavior or prepare to pay a little extra. 

When the flat fee system was developed over a decade ago, no one anticipated the growth of Internet usage on a per-customer basis that we are seeing today.  I believe that over the next few years, all ISP's will have to shift to a consumption-based system.

I like the model of a generous amount of bandwidth included for a base monthly fee.  As you approach that limit, we should let you know and when you go over it, we charge you for the overage.  There also will be some discussion about carrying forward unused bandwidth and how much will be in the base package.  Because none of this is coming soon to Insight, I don't know the answer to those types of questions yet.

I hope you appreciate that this forum is not a place for me to announce new products and policies, although I reserve the right to do so occasionally.  It is primarily a place to discuss issues and ideas about Insight and about the cable business.  That's what this discussion is about.

So when it comes to caps, let us know what you think.  As new circumstances force us to reevaluate our business in such a rapidly changing world, we certainly want to take into account our customers' preferences.  We will consider your comments if and when we begin to develop usage sensitive billing plans. 

But if it's simply, "I want all I can consume as cheap as possible," just remember what happened to Karl Marx's vision of utopia.

Comments

[ARGO]

With higher speeds coming down the road this bandwidth usage issue will standout as a deal maker or deal breaker with some customers.

In the Insight commercials about broadband speeds they highlight how our lives are becoming more connected to the new faster digital age and that is 100% true.

The internet is the complete entertainment and communication hub... Except to here(cap).