(snip)The days of watching movies on the cheap via the Web may soon be over.
Time Warner Cable and U.S. pay-TV companies, weighing how to profit from surging Internet demand spurred by Netflix and Hulu, are on the verge of instituting new fees on Web-access customers who use the most data.
At least one major cable operator will institute usage-based billing next year, predicts Craig Moffett, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. He said Cox Communications, Charter Communications or Time Warner Cable may be first to charge Web-access customers for the amount of data they consume, not just transmission speed.
"As more video shifts to the Web, the cable operators will inevitably align their pricing models," Moffett said. "With the right usage-based pricing plan, they can embrace the transition instead of resisting it."(snip)
(snip)AT&T, based in Dallas, charges digital subscriber line, or DSL, customers who exceed a monthly limit of 150 gigabytes in three consecutive months $10 extra for every additional 50 gigabytes of data they use.
Suddenlink, with about 1.4 million customers, began instituting usage caps in some markets in October. Users pay $10 for each 50 gigabytes they use over their monthly allowance.
Data usage is surging by almost 50 percent a year, Chief Executive Officer Jerry Kent said. Suddenlink's broadband revenue rose 12 percent in the third quarter, versus a 1.6 percent gain from pay TV.(snip)
The take-away of course is that the proposed new surcharges for high bandwidth usage will apply to uploads as well as downloads !!! At an average 2.5mb/s *60s/m * 60m/h = 9000mb/hour for 720p , 50gigs will get you about 6 hours worth of webcam streaming time ! We've discussed the issue that HD video is changing the webcam host business model due to increased internet backbone bandwidth costs in other threads. It now appears that camgirls are also going to directly experience those increased internet bandwidth costs on 'their end' of the video stream transmission as well. If these rate plans are put into effect as proposed, it's probable that a camgirl who streams 4 hours a day 5 days a week will be looking at a monthly ISP bill increase on the order of $160 per month in 'over the limit' bandwidth surcharges !!!



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