Comments on: America, show me your broadband usage

By: Michael Elling

Michael Elling — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 20:49:55 +0000

Fancy that! Someone actually alluded to declining marginal cost; something that seems to have disappeared from this industry over the past 15 years. Do I hear someone saying Moore’s and Metcalfe’s laws? Say it ain’t so!

By: Chubbysumo

Chubbysumo — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 04:44:04 +0000

Yea, so, i dont now where they get that the “average” user uses only ~20GB or less per month, because as a single user, with legal torrents and netflix, and amazon prime, and many other legit streaming and downloading sources(hulu, ect), even with cable TV, I still manage to use over 800GB+ per month, and have for the last 2 years(router logs to prove). I think they “exclude” heavy users from their stats just to influence how they appear. Since my ISP does not track usage, but imposes a cap, i have to track it myself, and have never gotten a complaint from them. More regularly, I go closer to 1TB per month, and sometimes go over that. Highest in the last 12 months is 2.3TB, and lowest is 599GB. Gaming, and streaming add up, and as quality increases on streaming, so too will the amount of data they consume. Fun fact: Did you know that the more data you use, the less per GB it actually costs your ISP? per a recent reports, ISPs only pay between $0.01 and $0.03 per GB depending on how much is used. The reason they want a low cap and overage model is pure cash grab, since if they billed you for “actual” usage, at an acceptable rate(meaning their costs plus a small reasonable profit), they would only be making $0.10 per GB at most, that means for my 1000GB, I would only be paying $100 per month, but that granny who only checks her email and uses 1/2 a GB, would only have a few dollar bill. If they want Usage Based Billing, they would not make any money, and profits would fall. This cap plus overage model is a pure cash grab, even in the wireless sector.

By: TWC User

TWC User — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:39:48 +0000

My family uses about 650GB a month average and we do not torrent…. TWC San Antonio here… 4 PCs, 2 xbox360, 1 PS3, 1 wii, four HTPC not including the other 4, Netflix, avid gamers – specially me on PC, I get my games from Steam and also have an OnLive account, 3 smartphones, 4 tablets, 3 laptops, have tv with TWC, online backups, if my toilet could be networked it would be…

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 08:22:45 +0000

I don’t buy it that a purely legitimate usage home that >also< subscribes to cable TV can use 320GB and 254GB in back-to-back months. They are either part of a botnet that they are unaware of, torrenting, or doing something else… It's very, very, very hard to consume that much data. Watching 5 series shows a bunch of movies on AppleTV is nowhere near enough data to push the envelope that far.

By: Stacey Higginbotham

Stacey Higginbotham — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 14:22:27 +0000

Or maybe really long content windows?

By: Josh Saunders

Josh Saunders — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 23:27:44 +0000

nice stats.
interesting to see so many legitimate users.. I don’t know anyone who ‘pays’ for digital media.. but I did read Australia has the highest number of pirates per capita.. perhaps its to do with our heritage?