----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Andrews" <marka@isc.org>
And in some parts of the world bandwidth caps are the norm even for terrestial lines. My DOCIS home line has a 120G (down + up on this plan) limit then it is rate limited for the rest of the month. I don't hit the 120G limit though I regularly go over 60G. If I need more bandwidth I would go up to the next tier. This gives me a fixed price as well as well defined service expectations.
And as much as I am not a fan of usage-based pricing -- and as often as I disagree with Mark :-) -- I don't have any problem with *that* approach: You get a big first cap, and then you rate limit to something suitable for everything except bulk transfer, and you can buy a bigger cap. As long as that first cap is reasonable -- and 120GB is, even for me -- then it's not a real hassle. The problem is a) putting the limit in the right place (x% of the customers consume y% of the total throughput per month) and b) selling it to existing accounts. It won't affect 100-x% of the customers, and of those, some percentage less than 100% will complain. Is that acceptable? Depends. Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink jra@baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://www.bcp38.info 2000 Land Rover DII St Petersburg FL USA BCP38: Ask For It By Name! +1 727 647 1274