[AusNOG] Complexity is not an excuse for an industry-wide cop-out (was Re: Conroy quit.)

[Mark Smith]

On 19 September 2016 at 12:43, Chris Brown <cbbrown at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 19 September 2016 at 07:48, Nick Stallman <nick at agentpoint.com> wrote:
>>
>> I thought most consumers bought the cheapest internet possible then just
>> complain loudly when their 4 Apple TV's can't stream at the same time at 4k.
>
>
>
> I think that will change over time as the performance of streaming services
> becomes the key driving factor for people and their knowledge grows because
> it's what people care about the most. If Netflix/stan/presto buffers a lot
> then it's cause to move providers.

I'm afraid I think that is a cop out. Customers shouldn't have to
learn what is important by going through a time and financially
expensive trial-and-error process of changing between multiple
providers.

One of the functions of marketing is to educate the market on what
criteria are important when selecting a product or service. ISP
marketing will fail to do that if it continues to promote "more is
better" without helping consumers understand what the criteria
actually mean and how they need to determine their needs.


 If torrents run at 30Mbit/s instead of
> 100Mbit/s then it's annoying but not critical.
>
>

It's critical to the people who have been lead to believe they'll get
100Mbps and in particular are paying a premium for that.