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General discussion

Tiered Internet to eliminate VoIP competition?

Feb 25, 2006 12:44PM PST

Not sure if someone already brought this up, but maybe tiered internet could be used by the telcos to eliminate VoIP competition. Well maybe not "eliminate," but if VoIP was forced to pay more for the guaranteed bandwidth, the price consumers would pay was definitely increase. In that case, telcos may attract more local calling customers. Just another addition to the telco "oh no, we can't make any more money" conspiracy theory.

Discussion is locked

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This is something . . .
Feb 26, 2006 12:51PM PST

. . . I've been worried about for a few months now.

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Some ISP's Have Tried This
Feb 26, 2006 10:31PM PST

I remember a while back some smaller isp's tried to block voip traffic and were fined by the FCC. Hopefully any changes to the telecommunications laws this year will protect network neutrality, since it is really about the consumers ability to choose.

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I fervently hope so . . .
Feb 26, 2006 11:56PM PST

. . . but, depending on the way you view things, I could see it being argued -- here I am, using the cable companies bandwidth, and hogging quite a lot of it, making phone calls, when the cable co. has their own phone service I could be paying for (for $15 more a month, providing less features than the company I get my phone service from). So, they charge me extra in some way to make back the cost of the bandwidth.

I don't want them to do that, but how is that really different than the idea that gas stations pass on the rising cost of gas to the consumer?

I guess we'll have to just wait and see.

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But they already do that
Feb 27, 2006 6:01AM PST

See, this is the tricky game the Telcos seem to be playing.

You already pay for bandwidth and if you gover that amount you pay for you get charged more. So in your example where I use VOIP and start taking up bandwidth, I either am just taking up bandwidth I pay for, or I get charged more for it.

What telcos seem to be saying is, we want to charge you AGAIN to get faster service.

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well, it's supposed to be unlimited
Feb 27, 2006 12:08PM PST

We have Road Runner. There's no stated limit to the amount of bandwidth, when you have them as your ISP. It's not like if you have your website hosted somewhere and they measure your bandwidth.

But, I think Road Runner can tell that we have internet phone. Last year, we started having trouble with our service. We shared a "drop" from the pole by the road with our next door neighbor. Finally, the RR people came and brought a line that they said was the same thickness as the ones that run on the poles, halfway up the driveway between the two houses, and then split off 2 lines, 1 to each house. The guy said "we've amped you up and now you'll be able to rock and roll." I thought it meant that between the two houses, we were using too much bandwidth for 1 drop -- since it was 2 houses, they had to fix it, but what if our one house (with digital cable to 2 TVs, regular cable to 2 TVs, internet shared by 2 computers and internet phone) starts to use too much bandwidth? The terms of service only say that you can't connect so many devices that it starts to degrade the signal, but that number of devices or configuaration is not specified. So far, Road Runner has been good and helpful and not trying to rip us off, but I still worry.

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Unlimited? Wow!
Feb 27, 2006 1:10PM PST

Wow. That's incredible. When i go to rr.com it says you get 5 mbps download, unless you pay for the premium service at 8 mbps. If you've got unlimited bandwidth hold onto it!