Re: Binge On! - get your umbrellas out, stuff's hitting the fan.

["Robert Webb" <rwebb () ropeguru com>]

Unfortunately when it comes to "competition" in the wireless world, even 
though there are multiple providers, the consumer will always be gouged 
given the attitude of today's providers to just follow what the other does. 
In my opinion, kind of a in the public eye form of collusion. So there will 
never be a true competition based market in the wireless given the current 
players.

There should be certifications for measurement is that is what my bill is 
going to be based on as a consumer. My power meter, gas meter, water meter, 
etc. get replaced every so often for calibration and the particular utility 
will come out and swap or test on site if I think there is an issue.

Unfortunately, providers like Comcast, yes, I know they aren't wireless, but 
their usage meter is a joke and a proprietary based joke at that. I do not 
think I have ever seen anyone from Comcast willing to describe exactly how 
their meter works and what is and is not counted towards usage. I am not a 
wireless expert, but my guess is that it would be even more difficult to 
accurately track usage on wireless given the portable nature.

(In my area, luckily, my landline ISP doesn't charge or have caps either. 
But my wireless carrier has caps. And given the data hungry phones these 
days in which a lot of the data cannot be controlled by the user, then I 
certainly want the technical details of the usage calculation open to me for 
review.)

Robert Webb

On Sat, 9 Jan 2016 10:46:29 -0600 (CST)
 Mike Hammett <nanog () ics-il net> wrote:
> The cost to the provider is irrelevant to the consumer. Cost to the 
> consumer is all the consumer should be concerned with. Competition, 
> industry and media would serve as the barometer to sensible or 
> ridiculous pricing. 
>
> There are a myriad of ways to measure usage. I'm not sure there are 
> any certifications for any other billing relating to the Internet, so 
> why start now? 
>
>
> (My ISP doesn't charge for usage and I don't intend to until the 
> industry makes that shift. I'm just debating this side.) 
>
>
> ----- 
> Mike Hammett 
> Intelligent Computing Solutions 
> http://www.ics-il.com 
>
>
> Midwest Internet Exchange 
> http://www.midwest-ix.com 
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Robert Webb" <rwebb () ropeguru com> 
> To: "Mike Hammett" <nanog () ics-il net> 
> Cc: "North American Network Operators' Group" <nanog () nanog org> 
> Sent: Saturday, January 9, 2016 10:37:23 AM 
> Subject: Re: Binge On! - get your umbrellas out, stuff's hitting the 
> fan. 
>
> The normal consumer has no way to correlate what the "real" cost is 
> as the 
> providers keep their "costs" for bandwidth, transit, etc. 
> proprietary 
> secrets and always lie to the consumer and muddy the picture of what 
> the ISP 
> actually pays for regarding bits! 
>
> Additionally, until there can be proper tools that are "certified" 
> for 
> measuring usage, then usage based billing will never be viable. 
>
> Robert Webb 
>
> On Sat, 9 Jan 2016 10:11:29 -0600 (CST) 
> Mike Hammett <nanog () ics-il net> wrote: 
> > My point on usage based billing isn't meant to stifle anything, but 
> > to provide equitable service to everyone at a fair price. $10/gig 
> > certainly isn't a fair price for almost any network. People pay 
> > variable rates for water, electricity, gas, food, etc., etc. 
> >
> > Is it necessarily a bad thing if people stop to think about what 
> > their usage costs? 
> >
> >
> > ----- 
> > Mike Hammett 
> > Intelligent Computing Solutions 
> > http://www.ics-il.com