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ISPs Should Stay With Flat-Rate Pricing

Analyst argues metered service will halt innovation and stunt growth

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 5, 2008 5:05 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Cable companies are wooing Wall Street by saying they’ll offset expensive implementation of a new, high-speed software protocol by metering broadband Internet access. Bad move, Om Malik writes on GigaOm. Flat-rate high-speed access has enabled recent revolutionary innovation in the telecom business, which led to almost 70 million broadband subscriptions in 2007, and a cash cow for the cable companies.

Metering connections, where an individual customer would have a set number of gigabytes to download each month, and be charged for every gig they went over, would amount to slaughtering the “golden goose,” Malik writes. Though cable companies must deal with a more changeable demand than DSL or FIOS providers, it matters not: the inventiveness spurred by unlimited data will inspire the next bunch of paying customers.

A Clearwire wireless network system card is seen.
A Clearwire wireless network system card is seen.   (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
A technician works on fiber-optic installation.
A technician works on fiber-optic installation.   (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
The Time Warner Center.
The Time Warner Center.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
ooma's Hub provides free, unlimited domestic phone calls for homes with broadband Internet service.
ooma's Hub provides free, unlimited domestic phone calls for homes with broadband Internet service.   (AP Photo/ooma Inc., file)
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broadband Internet • telecom industry • Internet service providers • cable operators • telecommunications companies • Time Warner Cable • tiered broadband

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