Why Tiered Broadband Is the Enemy of Innovation

June 6, 2008 at 12:04 am PT

It should come as no surprise: Incumbents are beginning to act like incumbents. But while the cable companies are the first ones to jump on the tiered-broadband bandwagon, they won’t be the last. Their argument for limiting bandwidth and data transfers based on price sounds like a good idea, especially as a way to get bargain hunters to buy. In the long run, however, tiered broadband is a terrible idea that will bring the innovation inspired by flat-rate broadband to a screeching halt.

Flat-rate broadband–however cheap or expensive (depending on your point of view) it might be–inspired the formation of Skype, YouTube, Facebook, Apple’s iTunes and MySpace, amongst others. It allowed us to freely experiment, to embrace both the applications and the ideas they represented, such as VoIP, online video, digital downloads and social networking.

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Tagged with: Apple, digital download, flat-rate broadband, GigaOm, iTunes, Myspace, Om Malik, online video, Skype, social networking, tiered broadband, VOIP, YouTube

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  • Carl Hicks

    While I agree somewhat with this argument we already have tired system. You can buy different speeds depending upon your needs. Which sounds good on paper but the problem is you don’t get what you pay for. I live in the mid-west and have road runner turbo which is suppose to offer seeds up to 10mb but i don’t get any where near that nor am i even getting a boost in performance. I ran the test on my connection with a router present, connecting directly to the modem and my speed were around 600kps during the height of the day when all the kids in the neighborhood get out of school. And about 700 at night around three or four in the morning when no one is really connected. After adding the premium service my seeds were the same. So paying the extra $15 is not worth it. But is an example of how we will pay more if we get more. And I feel the apps that are talking about the people willing to pay more are the main audience. So while it may hurt i don’t I would rather get the better performance, if we are truly going to get the better performance.

  • Bill Webb

    I think the weeping and gnashing of teeth over tiered broadband is similar to the current situation regarding oil prices. The excuses exist, and both sides will do what they can to influence things to go their way.

    But, ya know what? Just as people continue to drive despite incredible fuel costs (relative to what we’re used to — they’ve been this high in Europe for decades) folks will continue to pay whatever it takes to support their Internet habits, whatever they may be.

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