Metered broadband pushed by Verizon
It was not too long ago when Verizon, deemed the best wired and wireless broadband network in the United States, never said a word or lifted a finger on issues pertaining to a metered broadband service.
It all changed when Verizon CTO Dick Lynch spoke before peers in the broadband service industry in a recent Houston gathering. Lynch reportedly said the future of broadband service will have to be seen in the coming days as something that could be priced based on bandwidth consumption.
Although wireless carriers have since operated on usage charges, broadband has been always put at a flat rate. Verizon currently offers Fios, its fiber-to-the-home network, on unlimited bandwidth capacity and cost of $55 per month for 15Mbps service. Fios is nearing completion since it was constructed five years ago, and is aimed at serving 15 million American homes with some of the speediest in the country.
Lynch said that even with this powerful capacity, the company is studying its management of bandwidth and traffic knowing that forever offering such service without price structures is difficult to attain. This came after Verizon head revealed that it spend $17 million this year along to keep its 3G wireless network, deploy its 4G wireless broadband service and expand its global IP network.
The Verizon boss also said it is keeping its options open and considering their long time subscribers don’t see their price meter plan the same way they do; and also because recent developments toward broadband models might just hamper such plans. Lynch also said the government should push for business-friendly regulations to make their industry come up with flexible solutions and workable plans that would favor the people, instead of coming up with rigid solutions that would put the broadband networks at peril.
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