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Letting go of an obsession with net neutrality could free technologists to make online services even better.
Two years ago Mung Chiang, a professor of electrical engineering at Princeton, believed he could give customers more control. One simple adjustment would clear the way for lots of mobile-phone users to get as much data as they already did, and in some cases even more, on cheaper terms. Carriers could win, too, by nudging customers to reduce peak-period traffic, making some costly network upgrades unnecessary. “We thought we could increase the benefits for everyone,” Chiang recalls.
Chiang’s plan called for the wireless industry to offer its customers the same types of variable pricing that have brought new efficiencies to transportation and utilities. Rates increase during peak periods, when congestion is at its worst; they decrease during slack periods. In the pre-smartphone era, it would have been impossible to advise users ahead of time about a zig or zag in their connectivity charges. Now, it would be straightforward to vary the price of online access depending on congestion and build an app that let bargain hunters shift their activities to cheaper periods, even on a minute-by-minute basis. When prices were high, consumers could put off non-urgent tasks like downloading Facebook posts to read later. Careful users could save a lot of money.
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/531616/the-right-way-to-fix-the-internet/
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday October 18 2014, @02:03AM
There's a lot of incentive for greedy corporations to game these kind of pricing models. That's why they won't work. In theory they are better. But in practice any corporation management will try their luck to bastardize the marketplace. In the financial market there's something called "moral hazard" and this has that smell all over.
If users can be forced to pay more. Well expect the "peak load period" to gradually become longer and more expensive. Or caps to become tighter with time.
For a study in greediness and manipulation of the society, have a look at ComCast. Their practices has resulted in that they now have gotten unofficial ugly nicknames. Corporations are useful, but only if the society sets firm rules and consistently punish offenders enough to make bad behavior prohibitive. In all other cases they become psychopathic entities without criminal liability and bodiless.
(Score: 2) by jackb_guppy on Saturday October 18 2014, @03:15AM
Enron is a good example of that.
They where gaming the system in California buy power, "pump" it though a low capacity line, cause the system to spike, and then sell back higher cost power in to the market via correct grid... profit on all of Californians' backs. Though in shutting down power plans...
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/enron-caused-california-blackouts-traders-say [marketwatch.com]
http://truth-out.org/archive/component/k2/item/52157:tapes-show-enron-caused-rolling-blackouts-in-california [truth-out.org]
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/blackout/california/ [pbs.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_electricity_crisis [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday October 18 2014, @03:25AM
Seems like a lack of proper ruling.