From Slashdot: Comcast goes after NAT users

[Monty J. Harder]

"JD Runyan" <Jason.Runyan at nitckc.usda.gov> wrote:

> can use the vacated piece of highway.  We pay to have that infrastructure
> available to us.  The cost to the company is the infrastructure.  The
cable
> company incurs no additional cost if the infrastructure is used heavily,
or
> recover cost if it is not used.   Sure customers may complain if there
cable

  If you've noticed the pricing scheme that most cellular companies are
using, this fits into the "pay a flat rate for base capacity, with
additional charge for occasional extra use" theory. As an example, here are
the Cingular rates as of yesterday (I'm shopping for a new cellphone and
have the brochure handy):

    $/mo        Base "anytime" min.    extra minutes
$29.99                     250                    .45
$39.99                     400                    .45
$49.99                     600                    .35
$69.99                     900                    .35
$99.99                    1300                    .30
149.99                    2000                    .25
199.99                    3000                    .20

And they throw in 3000 night/weekend minutes each month

  How to apply this to computer bandwidth?  Well, let's start with that last
point first.  The notion of peak/off-peak rates.  Airlines give you a break
on travel on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, because those are their
slowest days.  The buffet my family ate lunch at today charges a higher
price in the evenings than midday, and higher yet on Sundays, because that's
their high-traffic times.  And back when AT&T had a monopoly on long
distance, they had 3 different prices/min, too.  That's why, back in the BBS
days, we moved the mail at night.  It was cheaper.

  I assure you that the people who run the cable companies know exactly
which hours of the week constitute 'peak' times.  They could program into
their cable 'modems' (bridges) for each rate plan a structure that sets
different bandwidth caps for time-of-day.  If I am downloading .ISO images
at 3 am, I ought to be able to do it at 4  Mb/s instead of 2.  A sliding
scale like this:

                DL Cap  (Mb/s)   UL Cap
$/mo        Peak    Off-peak   (Kb/s)
$10           0.125   0.25           32
$15           0.25     0.5             64
$20           0.5        1               96
$30            1          2             128
$40            2          4             256
$50            3          6             384
$60            4          8             512
$70            5         10            640
$80            6.5      13            864
$90            8         16           1024
100           10        20           1280

would put dial-up ISPs out of business in a hurry, since even the cheapest
rate is twice as good as '56K'.  Sure, a lot of people would opt for a
cheper plan than the $45/mo that TWC is charging for a flat 2Mb down/384Mb
up cap, but they'll also notice how much faster the system works when they
run off-peak hours, and be willing to kick in a few more bucks to get that
speed during peak hours, at which point they'll notice how much faster the
new off-peak speed is....

  It would also make 'reselling' a Good Thing for the cable company - if
they don't have to have customer service people talk to any of the
resellers' customers, they don't care - if service works to their demarc
point, that's what counts.  Don't need to do the bookkeeping for the email
accounts and such, either.