Ask HN: What to think of the end of unlimited broadband internet?

[BlazingFrog]

In light of AT&T's recent announcement that they will cap their broadband internet offering (through U-Verse and regular DSL), as does COMCAST from what I understand, it really looks like this is the way future will be for broadband internet.

It seems to me the impact on existing business models such as Netflix' streaming service, iTunes, Amazon's new streaming service, Sling, etc... will be devastating. Caps may be high enough (for now) but people will definitely think twice before committing to multi-GB downloads. Also, I can't help but think that this may kill yet-to-be discovered business models that would have relied on unlimited broadband.

Am I being too gloomy or is the door slowly closing on many internet-related future opportunities?

[bartonfink]

Broadband is a utility just like any other, and ought to be treated as such. I completely agree it should be capped or metered just like water and power are. I also agree that my usage should be my business, and that telcos have no right to tell me that I can use megabits I paid for in one way but not another. I wouldn't tolerate it if, for example, Xcel Energy told me that I could only power General Electric appliances.

Also, unlimited is an awfully big amount, and if your business model depends on unlimited in any way, the odds are that you either haven't thought it through or that it's simply not viable.

[DistortedRhymes]

Welcome to Australia where there have always been caps - partially because we download so much content from the USA that someone has to pay for the fibre under the ocean to carry it all to us. Caps do change consumer behaviour a lot, but that said the caps are getting generous enough these days to not be too restrictive. If you shop around you can get a Terabyte a month for a reasonable price and can only use that amount by streaming video content. Part of what aussie ISP's do now is offer steaming content free if you are their customer. iiNet does this with its Fetch-TV service, and also has unmetered access to iTunes, ABC iView and gaming content.

[tobylane]

I'm on TalkTalk (UK), last month I went twice over our monthly bandwidth and all that happened is that the download speeds went from 1600kps to 800-1100kps, which for the UK is still a pretty good speed. Talktalk BT and Sky who are the major three, just have general shaping, not aimed only at high users. It's timed, so you can download all you want 11pm to 5pm, then in what they call peak time, you can still watch HD films and so on, the slower speed is still enough for a lot.

[robflynn]

I do not like the addition of the caps, however, I don't think I've ever gotten close to their proposed caps, either. Perhaps their DSL cap, but not the U-Verse cap. (According to my router, I've used 48GB down thus far in March.)

I have a question to which I can not recall the answer: With U-Verse, television comes over the fiber as well, correct? If so, are they considering that part of the bandwidth cap or do they look at "internet" usage only?

[curt]

I think most of these caps are a result of Netflix. Saw something a few months ago that in the evening Netflix accounts for a majority of internet bandwidth, which is craziness. A lot of people are in favor of net neutrality, but the telecoms need to make money, networks aren't cheap. Due to the uncertainty I wouldn't fault them for holding back on infrastructure investments which causes prices to rise due to limited supply.

[Limes102]

I have a 50GB cap on the ISP I am with, and I cannot fault them for it as it uses BT's network.

It's sort of fortunate that my phone line is 40 years old because if it wasn't, I would download a lot more than 50GB/month