[AusNOG] Netflix, AWS and Softlayer vs. Australia

[Mark ZZZ Smith]

----- Original Message -----
> From: Mark Newton <newton at atdot.dotat.org>
> To: Alan Maher <alanmaher at gmail.com>
> Cc: "ausnog at lists.ausnog.net" <ausnog at lists.ausnog.net>
> Sent: Friday, 5 December 2014, 0:14
> Subject: Re: [AusNOG] Netflix, AWS and Softlayer vs. Australia
> 
> 
> 

<snip> 

>>  Quotas are a mysterious beast, invented by Telcos/ISP's (here in NZ) to 
> create a
>>  series of layered marketing "opportunity".
> 
> That's not what quotas are for. 
> 
> Quotas are to put a price/value on usage, to avoid the tragedy of the commons.

So I don't really think the tragedy of the commons applies, for two reasons.

Firstly, it is my understanding that users of the commons didn't pay to use it, and therefore there was no inherent individual constraint on its exploitation. Its use could have been regulated and policed by government to prevent the tragedy, however it seems it wasn't or wasn't enough.

Secondly, the commons (common resource) couldn't be or be easily expanded to cope with additional demand. 

Use of ISP networks is obviously paid for by its users, and the more an individual customer can pay or the more paying customers there are, the larger the ISP network can be built. 

More specifically to broadband today, I think quotas serve the purpose of allowing people to have a peak bandwidth that is much greater than the committed bandwidth they could buy for the same amount of money, or rather, the amount of money they're willing to pay.

I am lucky enough here to have 15 Mbps ADSL sync. However, at say $30/Mbps (to allow an ISP to cover costs and make a profit over what they're paying for transit), I would not be prepared to pay $450 per month for a 15Mbps "unlimited" plan. The quota allows me to use the 15Mbps of bandwidth some of but not all of the time.

Quotas could be gotten rid of if customers were willing to give up access speed in return. There might be a market for this sort of alternative plan - if you want "true" unlimited (i.e., DPI throttling free), your access speed is then artificially lowered either at the ADSL/ATM layer or at layer 2/3 via shapers to make this type of plan profitable enough for the ISP to be willing provide it. 


> Want to use more? Pay more, to find another lane on your highway. Avoids the 
> endless silly arguments the USA and Europe has about net neutrality, because in 
> this country everyone gets their ticket clipped all the time.
> 
> 
>     - mark
> 
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