Cisco's blog writes that we are in a data tsunami due to broadband Internet demand from consumers and their devices. Holy Hype, Batman! This is the same hype that Cisco's Global Consumer Internet Traffic Forecast started in 2009 with the Exabyte Tsunami. I get it: buy more Cisco gear.
It is behind that hype - and in the blog - that the Duopoly justifies metering, throttling and caps. It's kind of a load of bull to hide their flat ARPU. When you consider that VZ DSL costs about $30 and Road Runner cable service is $60 in Tampa Bay, I think that there is plenty of profit on the cable side. Caps, metering and throttling are for finite resources like satellite and cellular. Cellular reminds me of the auto industry: zero to 60 in WOW! But actually do that and you get a ticket. Why talk about 10MB up and down if you don't want people to use it?
Cisco talks about how bottled water pricing can be a model for broadband pricing. Two reasons that doesn't work: Branding and competition. In broadband, there is no competition. None. And What brand? FiOS? Lightning?
Short marketing lesson: if you keep changing the rules (pricing plans) for your customers, you deflower your brand. Change rates while diluting support - or having low support scores - makes your customers mad. Luckily, though, in many areas, you are the only choice. Ah, the monopoly.
So often the messaging is mixed. Watch video on your phone. Watch TV from anywhere in your house on your iPad. So video is front and center in ads but then punish the user for using it???
And has data really gone up? With video, probably. Shouldn't the Duopoly have expected that and planned accordingly? "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine."
Some stats:
Telogical Systems on slide 24 shows broadband standard rates increased by almost $1 in 2010. From 2010 to 2012 pricing stayed about the same, which is the problem for consumers who would like to see shrinking pricing and for ISP's who want to see more money.
"5 out of the 7 top ISPs already have, or will soon have, data usage caps," Telogical.
Lot of hype over data usage but I have been streaming the Olympics all week without too many buffering delays. So it isn't really a capacity issue. It's a Wall Street/stock price/debt issue.
What does caps, throttling, and metering do to cloud usage?
