Time Warner to Place Caps on Subscriber Bandwidth?

[PM5K]

http://wiki.gamedev.net/index.php/Op...Game_Bandwidth

I bet the gaming b/w isn't too bad per hour compared with DLing, but some people play many hours per week.

Anyway, I bet the Beaumont experiment goes on for months, with adjustments to the cap and charges.

Strange that Beaumont was chosen, it's a pretty poor, podunk place, even in the opinion of the people who live there.

It's not just about the bandwidth you spend playing a game, but what about downloading the trailer for that game, then the demo, then updates like new maps for that game, and many others.

I think a few people underestimate how easy it is to soak up bandwidth and how many legal ways your average Joe can find to do so, it's not just the people downloading things illegally via torrents for example.

[sabar]

It's not just about the bandwidth you spend playing a game, but what about downloading the trailer for that game, then the demo, then updates like new maps for that game, and many others.

I think a few people underestimate how easy it is to soak up bandwidth and how many legal ways your average Joe can find to do so, it's not just the people downloading things illegally via torrents for example.

Yep, exactly. ISPs want to abuse digital distribution. Here is a common scenario.

Joe decides he wants to play the latest MMO. He hops online and pays via credit card to download an 8 gb game. Once he has the game, Joe downloads an additional 4 gb in updates. Joe makes a movie of his gameplay and decides to distribute it online. It is too high quality for youtube so he makes it a torrent file and gives his friends the tracker. The video becomes quite popular and over the next week Joe has uploaded 50 gb of his video to other users with P2P technology.

Joe now decides to hop onto his Xbox360. He downloads a trailer for Bioshock at 0.5gb. Intrigued, Joe then downloads the trial version at 1.2gb. Later Joe will update windows and download 1.2 gb of updates.

Fact is: digital distribution is the future. it is NOW.
Fact is: ISPs see big $$$ in a world where people can watch live streaming TV on the net and download entire hi-def episodes of their favorite shows.
Fact is: Joe will be pretty mad when he gets a $120 bill for his bandwidth usage.

I downloaded a bunch of files the other day. I had over 4.4 million packets sent/received and noticed afterwards that my connection was dropping everyone 10 minutes. I had heard that AT&T had plans to do this. It is total garbage. It's hard to play a game when I get dropped from the server every 10 minutes because AT&T thinks they know what's best for me.

[Slomo]

Yep, exactly. ISPs want to abuse digital distribution. Here is a common scenario.

Joe decides he wants to play the latest MMO. He hops online and pays via credit card to download an 8 gb game. Once he has the game, Joe downloads an additional 4 gb in updates. Joe makes a movie of his gameplay and decides to distribute it online. It is too high quality for youtube so he makes it a torrent file and gives his friends the tracker. The video becomes quite popular and over the next week Joe has uploaded 50 gb of his video to other users with P2P technology.

Joe now decides to hop onto his Xbox360. He downloads a trailer for Bioshock at 0.5gb. Intrigued, Joe then downloads the trial version at 1.2gb. Later Joe will update windows and download 1.2 gb of updates.

Fact is: digital distribution is the future. it is NOW.
Fact is: ISPs see big $$$ in a world where people can watch live streaming TV on the net and download entire hi-def episodes of their favorite shows.
Fact is: Joe will be pretty mad when he gets a $120 bill for his bandwidth usage.

I downloaded a bunch of files the other day. I had over 4.4 million packets sent/received and noticed afterwards that my connection was dropping everyone 10 minutes. I had heard that AT&T had plans to do this. It is total garbage. It's hard to play a game when I get dropped from the server every 10 minutes because AT&T thinks they know what's best for me.

[Al Gore]

Soon the internet will dry up and then where will you be?

I blame Bush for this !

[CubanMustGo]

I always thought of technology more like cellular phone service, it should get cheaper as technology gets cheaper, and faster.

To a certain extent it already has. Plus if you want to send unlimited text messages, you pay more. If you want unlimited talk time during prime, you pay more. If you want an unlimited data plan, you pay more. Again, those consuming the most pay for it while Gramma Jo who just wants to talk to her grandkids a coupla times a month pays much less (if she knows what she's doing, anyway).

[boutons_]

"cellular phone service, it should get cheaper"

Anybody here paying LESS for their wire line than they are for the cell line?

Anybody paying their cell line at 3x more than than wire line?

[BacktoBasics]

"cellular phone service, it should get cheaper"

Anybody here paying LESS for their wire line than they are for the cell line?

Anybody paying their cell line at 3x more than than wire line?

My land line ran into the 30 buck range with caller ID, call waiting and long distance. I just bought Cricket and get unlimited minutes, unlimited text, call waiting, 3-way, free 411, caller ID and long distance for 36 bucks a month regardless of how long or short the month is.

[PM5K]

And that's the whole point.

Yet I'm paying the same for Road Runner as I was four years ago, even though all of the technology that supports the service has gotten cheaper and faster over these years.

And honestly I don't have a problem with that, just don't take me for a sucker and act like you have to charge me more, or place limits on my usage, when in reality you're trying to capitalize on digital delivery...

[N.Y. Johnny]

Soon the internet will dry up and then where will you be?

I blame Bush for this !

INTERNET 2

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

http://wiki.gamedev.net/index.php/Op...Game_Bandwidth

I bet the gaming b/w isn't too bad per hour compared with DLing, but some people play many hours per week.

Anyway, I bet the Beaumont experiment goes on for months, with adjustments to the cap and charges.

Strange that Beaumont was chosen, it's a pretty poor, podunk place, even in the opinion of the people who live there.

It makes perfect sense if you want to frame the results. As in 'well, bandwidth usage went down as a result of this and the (rich) that wanted the extra bandwidth paid for it. We're convinced...