On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 10:34 PM, Owen DeLong <owen@delong.com> wrote:
On Nov 29, 2010, at 9:09 PM, Andrew Koch wrote:
On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 22:17, William Herrin <bill@herrin.us> wrote:
So you're saying: treat it like electrical service. I have a 200 amp electrical service at my house. But I don't pay for a 200 amp service, I pay for kilowatt-hours of usage.
There are several problems transplanting that billing model to Internet service. The first you've already noticed - marketing activity has rendered it unsalable. But that's not the only problem.
Not quite. Look at mobile data plans. A very few are unlimited, most are per byte.
And I am on Sprint because they are one of the few.
Another problem is that the price of electricity has been very stable for a very long time, as has the general character of devices which consume it. Consumers have a gut understanding of the cost of leaving the light on. But what is a byte? How much to load that web page? Watch that movie? And doesn't Moore's Law mean that 18 months from now it should cost half as much? If I can't tell whether or not I'm being ripped off, I'm probably being ripped off.
Yep, sure seems that way when I get my mobile bill with roaming data charges. Consumers learn what it costs per byte, apps are created for them to manage their download amounts. Carriers send messages alerting consumers of their usage.
I simply avoid using roaming services. Frankly, my carrier could double their revenue from me and significantly increase their profits if they would offer me a global unlimited data/voice plan for twice what I currently pay for domestic. (If any of you cellular companies are listening, that's right, I'd be willing to pay ~$250/month for global unlimited voice/data and my usage would not increase very much above what you're already providing). I also happen to know that I'm not the only consumer that would very much like to be able to purchase this kind of service.
An alternative to N number of SIM cards or paying high roaming fees is WiFi calling from cellular using UMA or GAN technologies. I used the T-Mobile USA Blackberry Curve to call Philly from a free WiFi access point at a Shanghai coffee shop, worked fine. Skype probably works too. Yes, it only works while on WiFi, but when you are attached via wifi it is like being attached via the home network from a billing perspective. While on WiFi, voice, txt, and web all work. For me, it is a reasonable compromise when compared to roaming fees. Shameless plug http://tinyurl.com/2vqzcrv And, for the IPv6 enthusiast, the Nokia E73 does both GAN (wifi calling) and IPv6 on T-Mobile's 3G network (but not together... beta...) Cameron (not an unbiased source of information on america's largest 4G network)
Owen