Did I catch your attention? Do you agree? Well the cable companies and even Dallas's own Mark Cuban don't agree. Perhaps, I am overstating their position but the result of restricting the amount of data that is transmitted during a given period is an attack of VoIP/SIP Trunking. When the price paid by an end user is measured by the number of bytes transmitted, and then there are two charges for using IP Communications. One charge comes from the service provider, the other from the cable company. This will be a new and dangerous model if embraced by the cable companies.
The new idea is to have a flat price for low consumers of broadband and to charge a higher amount for consuming massive amounts of broadband. It seems innocent at first and perfectly in line with capitalism. However, look at other infrastructure models, toll roads and local measured service. Toll roads were initially a way to pay for highway infrastructure. Today, tolls are placed on roads with the rational that those who use them will pay for them. Therefore, if you don't want to pay to get from point A to point B, then you will use a slower, longer route to get there. However, during an emergency you too will be able to use the toll road. This is a waste of resources and a misguided way to build an infrastructure. Local measured usage is similar. The phone company builds the resources and then charges based upon minutes of usage. It sounds fair until you look at the actual cost of the infrastructure element.
Infrastructure is strategic. Cost recovery is tactical. I do not have a miracle answer. I know what is threatening the current model. It is the 24-hour gamer, video downloader and smore (look it up). Yes, things are changing. People are using the IP Communications more. I will spend more time on this on Wednesday...
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