Bandwidth Metering and why it hurts Apple TV
There was a time about fifteen years ago when you paid for X number of hours on the internet, and people did it because it was the only game in town. My senior year in high school AOL started to offer 19.99 unlimited access (This is when I got an Internet connection at my house) funny thing happened people signed up. As broadband began to take hold ISP’s used the same unlimited model, but you paid more for the faster speed no one complained too much. What can only be described as two big steps back the big providers are talking about metering your bandwidth like its 1994. Now you might ask; Keith why do I care I don’t download a lot, and I might use 50 gb a month? That’s the argument the big boys are using saying that it would only affect the top 5% of all users. I could lay out a ton of reasons why not only is that the most idiotic thing I have ever heard, but that in fact the mid level users would pay the price with higher prices and more headaches. However I would like to focus on how it affects the people who come to this site.
The question at hand is how this would affect the Apple TV user, or for that matter a user of any set top on demand box like vudu and the ruku Netflix box? First the obvious, every movie, tv show, podcast, or music you download or stream over the net would count against your allotted bits. In this day of HD, even with good compression, the files are big and the GBs will add up. Factor in a household Mom, Dad, 2.5 Kids all getting the above entertainment plus schoolwork, bills, and shopping you will hit the “Cap” faster then you think. Are AT&T and Verizon not looking at their Cell model that clearly shows people want unlimited data and voice, when they started to offer all you can eat data and text on their networks more people signed up for it, and now all are offering unlimited voice with success.
Maybe not so obvious, or maybe it’s the conspiracy theorist in me, that 6 of the top 10 ISPs are also trying to push TV. No I don’t believe this is the driving force (money is) but it is an issue that seems to go by the wayside when main stream media talks about the metering. No doubt that set top boxes including our beloved device is a threat to cable PPV; more people than ever want al carte, on demand programming, and IPTV like Revison3. We also want it when we want it this is shown in the amount of Tivos, DVRs, and portable video devices in the wild. All of takes lots of bandwidth and the ISPs are pouncing on it. I for one don’t want to have to pay bit by bit I want them all, all I can eat for a flat rate like I have been paying for the last 7 years. I don’t want to be in a place where I have to decide should I rent this today or next month because I might need more bandwidth at the end of the month.
Tell me what you think in your comments.
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UPDATE:
A reader posted this article in the comments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/technology/15cable.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
Tonight 6/18/08 was the first time I read it, however my inspiration for the piece I wrote came after I listened to Twit (This week in Tech) on Monday. But credit is due where credit is due and NYT article points out many of the same things I did and was published before me.
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Comments
The new proposed cap for Comcast is rumored to be 250GB, that’s almost 56 DVDs in one month. Run over the cap once, and they’ll let it pass. Keep doing it and you pay $10 for each 10GB in excess.
If you can afford to buy or rent 56 full movies from iTunes in one month, then you can afford the $10 fine for the overage.
Another thing you are not taking about is that these limits are usually applied to out-of-network traffic. As soon as one of the major ISPs hit with one of those caps, expect Apple and Netflix to push either an exclusion for their traffic, or caching within the ISP boundary.
The common guy is not going to have to worry about 250GB/month, but the miscreant pirate is going to think twice before seeding a Blu Ray rip for weeks at a time.
I had posted about this on macrumors and got nowhere, so I’m glad to see this addressed somewhere.
Unlike pvera, I have not heard about what the proposed cap will be, but I doubt it will be as much as 250 GB a month.
The conspiracy theorist in me agrees that the cable companies feel threatened by download services, whether it is Netflix, Hulu or ATV. If they can kill the competition, they will. Just look at the battle between Comcast and the NFL over placement of the NFL network.
I’m sure that some of the goal of cable companies is to limit those using BitTorrent from downloading movies non-stop, but I also believe that part of their goal is to destroy the competition.
This is just a back door around net neutrality.
You really should have posted the link to the New York Times report I sent you June 16th; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/technology/15cable.html
I’m sure it was the inspiration for your editorial. All VOD services, ATV to VUDU to NetFlix, need to take this threat seriously.
@cjohn17
Interesting article in the NYT, tonight was the first time I read it. My “inspiration” as it might be was after the discussion on This Week in Tech. I will post the link you gave.
To check the used bandwidth from my AppleTV I wrote AirPort Flow, a small tool to monitor the bandwidth going through an Airport Basestation.
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I think it is the conspiracy theorist in you. I am not sure how many HD movies you rent per month, but I think who they are looking to cap are people that are downloading almost 24/7. I have a few friends here that are constantly downloading TV shows and music from the Internet. From what they have told me they have BitTorrent going 24/7. Those are the people they are looking to put a cap on.
Also, with networking software, I am sure that the companies can find out the ‘X’ amount of data came from Apple’s site, so we will not count that as it is legitimate use. Of course then the question of what are legitimate sites come into question.
I am not worried about it and I do not feel as though it is ironic that 6 out of 10 that are talking are into TV. One of the biggest problems is most are cable connections that share the bandwidth in the neighborhood. If neighbor X and Y are downloading like bandits, neighbor Z will have slower bandwidth.
Just my two cents.