Meaning, the value to a cableco was they provided lots of channels and we consumers simply couldn’t get lots of channels any other way. We all had like 3-10 channels over rabbit ears, so lots of channels without having to tune the ears/coathanger was great and it was basically “more channels” and “better reception” that sold us. Now that you have Internet TV, there’s no value to the local headend. The only value is in the broadband TCP/IP connection itself, as most all the video you’ll want to watch is scattered across thousands of servers all over the world, not just from your local headend.

Moreover, traditional TV sucks. It’s 2008, man .. we’ve GOT to be able to fast-forward, rewind, record, zoom, link, index, tag and email the stuff we see. That’s InternetTV and that means the cablecos are simply the most current flavor of ISP. There will be a next wave, however .. look at WiMax and Clearwire. That tech is amazing, potentially a self-scalable mesh .. but it’s just another in a long (and continuing) series of progressive steps towards gigabit wireless atop a sea of 50c microchips.

I mean, we established the value to the headend content is all but gone with InternetTV, in a post-wimax world, where’s the long-term value to the cable plant? Think about it - telco and cableco equipment is just the same as your PC - everything they buy and bury in the ground or hike up a pole is outdated in 18 months. Having to amortize purchases like that over 8, 10 years just isn’t a winning model in a freely competitive environment. Think about it - look at how much changes in 8 years.

Bottom line - cablecos are enjoying the triple-play cash windfall now but in the end, they will provide no more than anyone else - TCP/IP, the dialtone of the web. All the content will be from elsewhere. They know this and want to throttle bandwidth NOT to guarantee you better service - no, they want to cap it because they want to keep the TV and telephone services on their OWN menu and not have their customers flocking instead to remote players like Hulu for TV, Vonage for phone, etc.

[W]ill ISPs guarantee a certain level of performance.

That’s one of the problems this whole thing is meant to address. Unfortunately, with a shared network, it is difficult to guarantee performance because the actions of others using the infrastructure will impact your speed.

Cable companies are trying to ensure that customers have the best possible experience. They are attempting to address a very small minority of users who currently have a negative impact on others.

For instance, look at the network in your office. Let’s say you have 10 people on your office network connected through the same Internet connection.

Ask your IT people what happens to network performance if one of the people in your office begins downloading 3 or 4 one GB files. He’ll tell you that download is going to slow the performance of everyone else in the office. That’s why many companies put restrictions on downloads, the size of file attachments on e-mails, the use of P2P applications and so on.

Cheers

So there seems to be recognition that people consuming more bandwidth are likely engaged in more bandwidth intensive activities that would benefit from higher speeds.

Given the rollout of DOCSIS 3.0, which enables top speeds many times faster than even the 15mpbs, it’s possible you may see companies exploring even greater speeds and corresponding higher caps.

One of the underlying instigators for this experiment is the people downloading massive quantities. The massive quantities are hindering network management and ‘degrading neighbour’s Internet experience’. The tiered system is meant to negate these, and with that in mind shouldn’t the consumers be compensated for such a dramatic shift in policy?

This is a positive step towards solving issues, even if it does not work out, at least one company is attempting to solve a well known issue. The download meter is also good, I had asked for such a tool simply because I have no idea how much data I move in a month.

…in the past month, 2.1% of our Broadband customers consumed more than 40GB.