Time Warner testing usage-based billing

[figment1986]

its stupid to charge for bandwith... esp in this day of age when photos i post could be any size but be huge data files...

speed is the best thing to charge for... but not bandwidth where they make enough money off of charges for everything else...

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by figment1986

speed is the best thing to charge for... but not bandwidth where they make enough money off of charges for everything else...

You are making the assumption that the price point starts where it is now and goes up from there. What about the possible model that current pricing is the base and then lower bandwidth usage pays less and higher pays more?

Granted, one would probably have the change to save less (percentage wise) than the potential increase, but the model remains.

I am not so sure that introducing a bandwidth usage cost factor into pricing is not a fair variable. Using more bandwidth increases the usage factor; why shouldn't a company be compensated for same?

One way to look at it is this: an individual is paid for their time (assuming an hourly wage). Do you think that everyone should be paid the same if they all put through the same amount of work? I know that productivity based pay is (sadly) not used (I am not sure on the legality of it), but don't we (generally speaking) pay more for an employee who is more experienced (and have I exceeded the maximum allowable number of parenthetical references in a sentence?).

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

I know that productivity based pay is (sadly) not used (I am not sure on the legality of it),

It's used in the sales world all the time (commissions).

The whole flap is partly perception, and we won't know the real impact until we see how they actually implement it. Will it be like, say, standard long distance phone service where you essentially start from zero and pay only for what you use each month? Or will it be like most cell phone plans where you pay a flat monthly rate as long as you use less than X amount of bandwidth, and then pay a premium if you go over that? Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

For me, I'm still uneasy about the possibility of having to be mindful of usage. If the pricing is set such that I actually have to monitor my use, that would be a reason for me to look elsewhere for service. I accept it with cell service because I simply don't use cell service the way I use the internet.