Unlimited Data Plans No More?
With all kinds of smart devices already in use and many more coming in the very near future, including home appliances, e-readers and smart tablets, TVs, automobiles, even furniture and clothing, broadband networks are expecting severe traffic increases. Verizon, operator of the nation's largest wireless service, recently addressed some of the issues.
In an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show, Verizon CTO Dick Lynch said that considering the amount of devices that may be connecting to networks from a single household in the not too distant future, the days of flat rate data plans may be coming to an end. According to Lynch, "The problem we have today with flat-based usage is that you are trying to encourage customers to be efficient in use and applications but you are getting some people who are bandwidth hogs using gigabytes a month and they are paying something like megabytes a month... That isn’t long-term sustainable. Why should customers using an average amount of bandwidth be subsidizing bandwidth hogs?” Adding to the problem is the fact that many devices not even sold through Verizon are tapping its network. People are now buying smart devices online or from their local Best Buy. According to Lynch “The whole paradigm of how we sell devices into the public is changing... At the same time that we announced LTE, we announced an open development initiative where we encouraged third-party developers to deploy devices on our network.”
The likely solution, according to Lynch, will lie in a business model known as usage-based pricing. Under this model a provider such as Verizon would charge the user a base rate and would allow a number of authenticated devices to attach to the network. The provider would then charge the user for the amount of bandwidth used.
Verizon's LTE network is expected to cover around 100 million people by year's end and AT&T is on track to deploy its own LTE network by the end of the year as well. Clearwire's WiMax ultra high-speed network already covers several major cities and markets.
[via The Washington Post]
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
