“Broadband Squeeze” Spooks Media Companies
Time Warner is starting a new trial of “Internet metering” that would allow customers to select a monthly plan that imposes bandwidth limits and as expected charges you overage fees for exceeding your limit. Time Warner suggests this is fair for all users as some users known as “bandwidth hogs” can negatively affect the Internet experience for the average consumer. Yet, the internet is constantly growing and has become the place for all your entertainment needs.
The technology company Cisco drives this point home by stating, “today’s ‘bandwidth hog’ is tomorrow’s average user.”So why are media companies spooked? Even if the average user uses well below the limit the monthly cap causes users to worry about how much time they are spending online. This will lead some users to reduce their time online and this is accompanied by a reduction in trying new sites and applications. Video is the biggest hog of gigabytes and bandwidth caps will hurt online video advertising.
Mr. Leddy of Time Warner states, “media companies’ fears were overblown.” He states that Time Warner could not stop web video and that they are aware of having to increase capacity to accommodate video. Mr Leddy’s words do not reassure me and media companies should be shivering in their boots.
As a dedicated Netflix user and a fan of the Office I am not too excited about this trial either. If metering is the way of the future I will feel conflicted and torn as the media companies keep pushing me to stay online as the number of television shows and games keep increasing and the internet provider is trying to hit me with overage charges for doing what I have been attracted to do. Video and video ads will probably be the most hurt by the caps, but I believe the results will be more catastrophic as this metering has the potential to reduce Internet growth.
Source:Article from the NYTimes.com.
Read more here: Charging by the Byte to Curb Internet Traffic Brian Stelter
