A week ago, a tweet was directed to me asking about download caps.
It was possibly a rhetorical question, but it may also demonstrate a lack of understanding of capacity constraints and cost drivers on wireline and mobile broadband networks.
An unlimited buffet advertised (but not necessarily offered) in other markets won’t last forever. AT&T’s CEO has already said that the company will need to “progress more toward variable pricing. Heavier consumers will pay more than lower consumers.”
In the old days of email, file transfers and news groups as the main applications on the internet, delays due to queuing of transmissions was less of a concern. Who would notice a second or two delay? Streaming content, gaming and voice are far less tolerant of these.
I wonder if we can frame the network engineering problem as having two components when we define broadband capacity: the throughput speed and the volume of traffic to be carried. Think of it in terms of a car. You can put a powerful engine into a car to make it go fast, but the size of the gas tank and how much fuel is on board determines how far you can go.
Are unlimited offers sustainable?
On this topic, we agree. Truly ‘unlimited’ usage offers are unsustainable. There are any number of options available, and the market should decide which strategies are preferable. Will it be closer to the Videotron or the Globalive model? Only time will tell. That said, real competition is needed to make such a system function efficiently, and I don’t think our current reliance on facilities-based competition gets us there.