Broadband Provider Wide Open West Tries To Justify Unnecessary Broadband Caps Using... Pizza?

Broadband Provider Wide Open West Tries To Justify Unnecessary Broadband Caps Using... Pizza?

3 years ago
Anonymous $hYN7Hy7o7J

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210402/11544246541/broadband-provider-wide-open-west-tries-to-justify-unnecessary-broadband-caps-using-pizza.shtml

For a long time now, we've explained how broadband usage caps are bullshit. They serve no technical purpose on the network, and aren't genuinely helpful in managing congestion. Their real role is several fold: one, they let ISPs charge US consumers (who already pay some of the highest prices in the developed world) even higher rates; two, they let ISPs falsely advertise a lower price than they actually charge; and three, they can be abused anticompetitively (exempting an ISP's own streaming content from caps while still penalizing a competitor like Netflix).

Despite this, regulators historically haven't much cared, even during a pandemic showcasing how affordable broadband is essential for survival. And ISPs keep slowly expanding the adoption of such caps across the states in the hopes nobody will notice (think of the boiling frog metaphor with you as the frog).