Why are Bandwidth charges going up so fast!!!!????

[myronman]

Hello,

I'm reading everywhere that sites have to charge for hosting, charge for bandwidth, charge to survive. My questions is whether this is setting off any red flags for any other users of the internet. When equipment prices are dropping through the floor, how are bandwidth prices either staying the same, or getting more expensive with slower speeds? Can someone explain where the telcos come in on this and how they set up their pricing structures? I just don't see how they still charge so much even though more users are using bandwidth than ever... Help!!

[doctorgonzo]

Well, while hardware prices are low now, that doesn't mean that they were low when they were bought. All of those companies that went nuts and bought craploads of equipment a few years ago are still paying for it. Perhaps, in the halcyon days of the tech bubble, they thought that money would magically flow in from somewhere that they could provide bandwith for free or for cheap. But now, with bills to pay, they realized they have to start charging.

[=justice]

Let's compare some prices. I pay $40/mo. from Southwestern Bell for my DSL, although I understand new subscribers must pay $50. My modem was free after the rebate about 1 1/2 years ago.

[myronman]

I pay 50/month, but I have friends in "new" areas of dsl coverage that get it as low as 20/month.

I would still like to know though how these companies are claiming that hosting is getting expensive and that bandwidth is getting soooo expensive. Who's taking count and collecting the tolls for these people. Should something be done about how out of control the pricing is getting...???!!

[snakeyes]

I just moved a few weeks ago and I am looking to get setup with cable modem. My roomates cable provider is WOW (Wide Open West) and what is new to me is they charge for how fast of a connection you want. up to 500k = $ depending of the cable tv package, and 1.5MB for $ depending on the cable tv package you have?? I've never seen this. They've got to be making some bank I tell you what!

[Xayd]

Because the providers of raw bandwidth in the US (in the form of ~20 backbone link providers) are the only people who make money in the internet service industry.

This situation is no different than the situation 20 or so years ago with AT&T fixing the price of long distance, the only difference now being that all of these companies fix high prices as a group rather than one company controlling it all.

European countries in which the government doesn't answer to campaign contributions don't have this problem, which is why you can get a 10mbps sync connection in Sweden for around the equivalent of 40 US dollars a month.

There's nothing free about the free market in this business. It's cheaper for the lot of them to sell a little bandwidth to you for a lot of money than to sell you a usable amount of bandwidth for a fair price.

And no one can make me believe that providing bandwidth is so expensive as to justify these prices, when Europe has outpaced us in this market on a measure of what the consumer gets for his money, with the exception of the UK (because they like the US must preserve their price gouging telecom monopoly(s) in the form of British Telecom).

As a reference, you pay 40 a month for 1.5mbps DSL? Well, that much bandwidth to an ISP costs somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 to 200 dollars a month, depending on how much they pay for on a monthly basis. Look at the numbers, that's is why there are no more local ISPs, and internet service in the US is shotty at best. No one cares what you get or how much you pay for it, the only thing that matters is the collective bottom line profits and lack of any competition for AT&T/Sprint/C&W/etc. and the regional Bells.

[myronman]

I swear in instance after instance I see american business as messed up enough to warrant me literally leaving the country... I can totally see myself living in Sweden in about 2 years...

[shecky981]

Just as a side note to this thread I will give you all a warning: Hadware prices are on the rise again. you will see PC prices start to rise a bit over the next 2 quarters, especially anything with an LCD TFT Screen.