Broadband

[colirv]

The fairest and most efficient way of setting the fixed and variable elements of the charge would be to base them on the respective fixed and variable costs of providing the service.

Re the earlier topic, we went onto metered water not so much in the expectation that we'd save money (our bills in practice have proved similar) but because we believe in the principle of paying for what you use. I'd happily pay a per-GB charge for bandwidth.

[Technical Ben]

If People pay for data mobile data like cloud services are using it all the time, apps constantly in communication with other apps like whatsapp Skype etc there are hundreds if not thousands of such apps, so if you pay for every mb you use constantly people just wont use the damn things, they become expensive luxuries, so the market which is already in decline compared with 2012 and again in 2013 would have the bottom fall out of it. Apps wont get made smartphones would become dumb phones again, try downloading your music collection from the cloud if you have to pay though the nose for data!

Companies that make the things would see huge lay offs from the decrease in manufacturing as people stop buying them in the because people want bargains and tariffs with inclusive data not pay as you eat. As I have stated you are setting up a class divide with poor vs rich for internet use. I really cant believe you cant see that!

Your example of a water meter is spot on. As said. No system is perfect, and very few are necessities. Both metered and unmetered works best for different people when it comes to water. Neither a meter or unmetered gives a "best" result for all consumers. However, if everyone goes on a meter, then they pay for what they use, or decide to use less to pay the same. It does not cause a collapse or emergency, just a change in how people use it.

The same goes for bandwidth. Those programs do not often require a full cloud system, they can and sometimes do work as the old ones on dialup did (ICQ chat). Plus we do already pay for the exact data we use. Profit margins on top of that. This would just re-issue the bills proportionate to use, it would not increase the overall cost.

Also, this is not a hypothetical. We had it with dialup, though arguably on time, not bitrate. Some offered both a metered and an "unlimited" billing option. We had it with mobiles, and some still do. Both those systems still worked, and users still used it. Besides, no matter how much we save, we always want to use "more"... at lest I do when it comes to chocolate... 

PS, Sadly Simon, we have to look at the billing from the other end. Not what we are willing to pay, but what it actually costs. That's the key. Though our willingness drives demand, that changes costs to some extent, the underlying costs dictate a minimum price. The rest is just "profits" that can fluctuate from nothing to "unlimited".