I wonder how long before ISP's will switch to a per use billing scheme like power.

[Aikouka]

Imagine if you purchased AC Unity under this payment method? You would have paid over $100 just to download the game before you paid for the actual game, season pass, etc.

One problem with the Comcast trial system right now is it puts a very clear price point on any digital sale. You mentioned ACU, and while I got the game for free through the NVIDIA promotion, it still took 42GB of my bandwidth (+ more for patches). If I pay $58 and get 300GB of bandwidth, then the game actually cost me an additional 42/300 * $58, which is $8.12.

 

[Sheep]

Until you wake up one day to a monthly bill for $500 because your 14 year old kid discovered torrenting.

Or streaming Netflix or Amazon On Demand video. Or downloading games, movies or music on Steam, Xbox Live, PSN, Apple's app store or Google Play. Or watching cat videos on YouTube.

I dare say a $1/GB would be absolutely ridiculous for most households.

 

[MiniDoom]

wifi hacking would probably get a lot more common.

 

[Nograts]

wifi hacking would probably get a lot more common.

Mad Max + Wardriving. :hmm:

 

[VirtualLarry]

I dunno, I've never seen any internet under $60/month...regardless of how little you use. Sure per GB is higher at the lower tiers, but for people who use little they would be paying less than now.

I paid $29/mo for several years on 3Mbit/sec down (unlimited bandwidth) DSL. I used to max my line 24/7.

 

[marvdmartian]

Actually, in 1997, my ISP charged by blocks of time. This was back in the dial-up days, so it was easy for them to keep track of it, as you had to call in to get on the internet.

If I remember right, 100 hours was $70/month, and a dollar an hour if you went over.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yep I remember dialup, always having to worry about how much time you stay on. I remember when there were dialup viruses, they would make your modem dialup and use up all your minutes. You could end up with an insane bill. If they add caps, same idea though,a virus could just start using your machine as a DDoS node and you end up with like a 100k bill.

I remember when they introduced unlimited dialup, but I was not lucky enough to get it.

The real hardcore people would have a secondary phone line and treat it like a broadband connection. Oh year 56k unlimited access wooo!