Adam Thierer at Tech Liberation Front has had two great posts in the last two days about Free Press's new crusade against metered billing, which has attracted support from Rep. Eric Massa (D - NY). Thierer argued first that the effort "is based on a combination of outright lies and blatant economic ignorance." Harsh, but he makes a compelling case:
Unconvinced?
Check out Adam's second post on the subject, in which he cites some of Free Press's own work documenting the potential benefits of metered bandwidth.
Metering broadband access is not an effort "to restrict Internet use," as Free Press claims. Rather, like every other metered system under the sun, it's an effort to price a scarce resource in such a way so as to maximize use. Broadband operators don't sit around all day scheming to find ways to decrease network usage. They wouldn't make any money that way!! They need to find business models that encourage increased uptake while also investing in and growing their networks to meet new demand and competitive challenges.Very true. As with the net neutrality debate, people seem to start from the assumption that network operators want to actively devalue their own product, which makes no sense. Quite the contrary, network operators want to offer their services to a wider range of people, including those who might want to pay less for using less broadband. Right now, there is a disincentive for such users:
Unless it is your goal to allow some particularly aggressive users to be subsidized by all other users, it is sometimes sensible to price usage based on demand. If you don't, you potentially create a perverse incentive for a small handful of over-grazers to to be feeding at the trough at everyone else's expense.It was a very good post in defense of some of the myriad reasons ISPs might want to move to metered bandwidth, and you should read the whole thing.
Unconvinced?
Check out Adam's second post on the subject, in which he cites some of Free Press's own work documenting the potential benefits of metered bandwidth.
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