If you think downloadable content is the future of home entertainment, read this first!
As long as there are hard caps on downloading content, no matter how high they are, the days of downloading your favorite movie or watching a show anytime you feel like are going to be short lived. All Comcast wants to do here is set a precedent and then they'll gradually lower the cap, little by little, just like my half-gallon of ice cream is now 3/4 of a 1/2 gallon.
People are going to miss the point if they let this slide through. 250GB per month, 2500GB/month, 25GB/month? It doesn't matter. Just the setting of a limit is enough. Once it starts, good luck stopping it. It'll be just like the cell phone industry and phone company. Every little feature will be charged for.
Oddly, just when the phone companies are figuring unlimited use is a good thing, the cable companies are going the other direction.
Hopefully Google, Apple, Netflix, and anyone else doing downloadable content will have a thing or two to say about this. FiOS might actually be a good deal by the time it rolls through my neighborhood. (that'll be in 2020 probably but who knows...)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
It's just part of the corporate culture that believes in squeezing every nickel from its customers. Value is an illusion, and trust is antiquated.
What's next, caps on electricity use to conserve energy? Water use in a drought? Number of shows you can watch on a basic cable package?
No, these bandwidth caps are silly, greedy, and - as you said - slippery as heck.
A lot of this would be easier to digest but there is no real competition in this area. (at least not in my area...)
I have one choice for high speed access and that is the cable company (time warner in my case) and if they implement caps, it'll be a their way or the highway. DSL isn't available for me and probably never will because of a oddly placed CO.
Unfortunately, even in markets with competition such as the cell phone business, we still put up with ludicrous plans.
There isn't any real competition for high speed cable, except where FiOS is available. DSL is a fraction of the speed in most markets. Dial Up isn't an option. It's the same here. Without Time Warner, I'd be screwed. They know it, and they like it.
Post a Comment