Congressman wants to rid us of downloads caps

[Kay]

The argument from the New York representative Eric Massa is a fair one. But as the blogger says, shouldn't we just let good ole corporate competition rather than legislators sort it out?

And now Congress is getting into the picture, with New York representative Eric Massa saying he will introduce a bill to Congress to outlaw bandwidth caps altogether.

Currently called the Broadband Internet Fairness Act (BIFA), Massa posits that bandwidth caps actually "kill" jobs and complains that the practice of abruptly limiting access -- which consumers have been receiving without a cap for years -- is unfair to customers. After overage charges (generously capped at $75 max), customers could be paying about $150 for service under the new plan, service which would have previously cost them just $40 a month. Massa calls the nearly 4x price hike "excessive and disproportionate" and a "horrible long-term precedent."

Congressman floats law to ban Internet download caps : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

[Siegfred]

Good. There is no excuse, or reason, to limit how much we can download. The servers can handle it JUST fine, thank you.

[Kay]

Originally Posted by Siegfred

Good. There is no excuse, or reason, to limit how much we can download. The servers can handle it JUST fine, thank you.

Maybe they can and maybe they can't. The server owners are the ones that have to pay for more server upgrades. That's why they limit it. Unlimited downloads will hit their pockets hardest. What happens then? The pass the cost increases onto the consumer.

I don't agree with overage charges but I do agree with tiered packages and anyone using at or near their limit should be given notice they will need to upgrade soon, which I think most providers do anyway. Otherwise the guy that only goes on to check his email will end up paying a flat rate same as the guy downloading 24/7. By all means offer unlimited but as a consumer, you can expect to pay for it.

[Kay]

Time Warner Cable was going to try out what they called consumption based billing but the backlash has stayed their hand.

CEO Glenn Britt said that it was "clear from the public response over the last two weeks that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about our plans to roll out additional tests on consumption based billing." He added that the company will not proceed with the trials until there has been "further consultation with our customers and other interested parties."

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