On Sat, 26 Dec 2020 00:32:49 -0500, bzs@theworld.com said:
I suppose that depends a lot on what the actual prices of a flat-rate 1gb vs a fully saturated 10gb. If it's $50 vs $100/mo perhaps some would say ok I'll risk the $50 overage, if it's $50 vs $500/mo maybe not.
And today we have bandwidth-shaping in most any router/cpe (or could) so even with the 10gb/metered someone in the house with the password could rate-limit except when they needed it :-)
Note that the vast majority of users either use the ISP-provided CPE, or something they picked up at Walmart or Best Buy. This leads to an interesting economic incentive problem. The ISP is obviously not motivated to supply kit that can do bandwidth shaping on a metered drop. Meanwhile, the providers of gear that gets sold at Walmart or Best Buy also have no motivation to add it until enough ISPs are providing metered high-speed service that "We can help prevent overage charges" becomes a viable market differentiation. Anybody got a feel for what percent of the third-party gear currently sold to consumers has sane bufferbloat support in 2020, when we've *known* that de-bufferbloated gear is a viable differentiatior if marketed right (consider the percent of families that have at least one gamer who cares)?