| From: | Neil Bothwick |
| Date: | 10 May 2000 at 10:51:20 |
| Subject: | Re: 0800 |
Richard Lane said,
> Hello Neil
>> In what way is using an Internet connection to download stuff from the
>> Internet abuse?
> None, but the point I was trying to make (badly) was that unless there's
> unlimited bandwidth and modems available, which like all ISP's there's not,
> eventually it will reach saturation point where no one can get connected. If
> people where paying normal BT rates would they hog the resources for hours on
> end downloading tons of MP3's etc? of course they wouldn't. So why do they do
> it on RHA. Yes because it's free'ish. Selfish buggers. :)
Any ISP that thinks that usage patterns are dictated by call charges is
deluding themselves. People are bound to do more. Controlling usage of
products by hiking the price is standard government tactics (increased
duty on fags, leaded petrol etc.) why would anyone expect this to not
apply to net usage.
RHA are exacerbating the problem themselves by making it so hard to get
online. If it takes half an hour to get a connection, you're not going to
drop it until you're sure you won't need it for quite some time.
It seems a worrying number of people haven't really thought this
through. How many UK dialup users regularly access streaming video or
webcam sites? Very few, but it's not because they aren't interested in
them. Remove the cost control and these services will be used more and
more. The true cost to providing unmetered access is not in the phone
charges, it's in providing the infrastructure to support the change in
usage patterns. That doesn't mean just slapping in a few modems, it
means a serious increase in bandwidth.
One T3 line for 50,000 users may be just about OK when those users are
limited by phone bills (U-NET have more that three times that bandwidth
for less users), but it's pretty useless once the floodgates are opened.
RHA should have stuck with the names of their 0845 provider for this
service. Free4All describes it fairly well.
Neil
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