Summary
1. All of the ISPs will gradually take on the task of “consumer education.” 2. “Rep. Charles Schumer didn’t comment on how Time-Warner Cable is supposed to continue supporting its high-speed offering as its customers consume more bandwidth” – because he does not care about that problem. 3. It should be commonsense that “[t]he more you consume, the more you pay.”
Analysis
For the politicians, it is all about scoring cheap political points by demagoguing any kind of price increases. They have done it with everything from gasoline to ATM card fees.
There will not likely be a coordinated effort among the large ISPs to push for change on this issue. It will occur in slow but sure steps by the individual carriers. In some cases, such as with Time Warner Cable, a temporary step back will be necessary.
One critic of consumption caps from Light Reading’s Cable Digital News argues that, “consumers viscerally despise them...because they fundamentally alter their Internet experience.” That really is a very exaggerated characterization. The user will quickly become accustomed to the “potential financial consequence” of a particular activity on the Internet.
