Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: NCLawman on June 15, 2008, 03:56:40 AM
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I foudn this news article in today's paper. I hope this isn't the future of the web. This will clearly suck :furious
Heavy users may pay more for Internet
Brian Stelter, The New York Times
Some people use the Internet simply to check e-mail and look up phone numbers. Others are online all day, downloading big video and music files. Should they pay the same price for access?
For years they have, with subscribers sharing a buffet of all-you-can-download Internet access, regardless of how much they consumed. But now three of the country's largest Internet service providers are threatening to clamp down on their most active subscribers by placing monthly limits on their online activity.
One of them, Time Warner Cable, began a trial of "Internet metering" in one Texas city early this month, asking customers to select a monthly plan and pay surcharges when they exceed their bandwidth limit. The idea is that people who use the network more heavily should pay more, the way they do for water, electricity, or, in many cases, cell phone minutes.
That same week, Comcast said that it would expand on a strategy it uses to manage Internet traffic: slowing down the connections of the heaviest users, so-called bandwidth hogs, at peak times.
AT&T also said Thursday that limits on heavy use were inevitable and that it was considering pricing based on data volume. "Based on current trends, total bandwidth in the AT&T network will increase by four times over the next three years," the company said in a statement.
All three companies say that placing caps on broadband use will ensure fair access for all users.
Internet metering is a throwback to the days of dial-up service, but at a time when video and interactive games are becoming popular, the experiments could have huge implications for the future of the Web.
Millions of people are moving online to watch movies and television shows, play multiplayer video games and talk over videoconference with family and friends. And media companies are trying to get people to spend more time online: the Disneys and NBCs of the world keep adding television shows and movies to their Web sites, giving consumers convenient entertainment that soaks up a lot of bandwidth.
Moreover, companies with physical storefronts, like Blockbuster, are moving toward digital delivery of entertainment. And new distributors of online content -- think YouTube -- are relying on an open data spigot to make their business plans work.
Fewer downloads likely
Critics of the bandwidth limits say that metering and capping network use could hold back the inevitable convergence of television, computers and the Internet.
The Internet "is how we deliver our shows," said Jim Louderback, chief executive of Revision3, a three-year-old media company that runs what it calls a television network on the Web. "If all of a sudden our viewers are worried about some sort of a broadband cap, they may think twice about downloading or watching our shows."
Even if the caps are far above the average users' consumption, their mere existence could cause users to reduce their time online. Just ask people who carefully monitor their monthly allotments of cell phone minutes and text messages.
"As soon as you put serious uncertainty as to cost on the table, people's feeling of freedom to predict cost dries up and so does innovation and trying new applications," Vint Cerf, the chief Internet evangelist for Google, who is often called the "father of the Internet," said in an e-mail message.
But the companies imposing the caps say that their actions are only fair.
Time Warner also frames the issue in financial terms: The broadband infrastructure needs to be improved, it says, and maybe metering could pay for the upgrades. So far its trial is limited to new subscribers in Beaumont, Texas, a city of roughly 110,000.
In that trial, new customers can buy plans with a 5-gigabyte cap, a 20-gigabyte cap or a 40-gigabyte cap. Prices for those plans range from $30 to $50. Above the cap, customers pay $1 a gigabyte. Plans with higher caps come with faster service.
"Average customers are way below the caps," said Kevin Leddy, executive vice president for advanced technology at Time Warner Cable.
Time Warner would not reveal how many gigabytes an average customer uses, saying only that 95 percent of customers use under 40 gigabytes each in a month.
That means that 5 percent of customers use more than 50 percent of the network's overall capacity, the company said.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner.
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A bunch of parasites on a rock in a universe we cannot comprehend decide to increase the price of the intardnet for those who use it more....it makes sense if you think about it, seriously, why not just up the price of EVERYTHING and get rid of the "non wealthy"...oh wait they are already doing that.
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A bunch of parasites on a rock in a universe we cannot comprehend decide to increase the price of the intardnet for those who use it more....it makes sense if you think about it, seriously, why not just up the price of EVERYTHING and get rid of the "non wealthy"...oh wait they are already doing that.
My brother & I still live in the time-warped dial up zone here in Eastern Oregon, and I doubt we will ever see any signs of a good economy out here with the high price of everything. I figure if I no longer will be able to afford internet, at least it will be a peaceful, somewhat isolated exsistence out here-- lots of farmland, plenty of work, plenty of family time. I've definitely got other hobbies if I can no longer play Aces High. It's all about priorities nowadays.
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:noid
That 5% of heavy users is also the group on the leading edge of the technology. Push them out, and future demand by the rest will be delayed, or shifted to other means of access.
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Many other companies including HiTech Creations will suffer because of this. With gas prices and increase in food prices I can not afford to pay for these new pay plans which for many who play online games it will result in drop of players in these games because people will be worried about going over there CAP limits while playing games. Good for the big boys but bad for everyone else.
The other thing causing more bandwidth being used is caused by the internet companies themselves and it is called high speed internet phone services which eat up bandwidth.
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Look at it this way.
ISP's start charging more for those who spend lots of time downloading porn, software, etc on the net.
This cuts down usage over all, allowing those who fly to have a better ping and more stable connection.
We know the net is seriously overloaded on several major backbones in prime time.
This is just one step of many possible to help fix that problem without having to spend billions upgrading backbones.
Seems like a decent idea to me if its used reasonably.
You'd still be able to fly, surf, download a program here & there.
But those who were constantly downloading would pay more.
Helping to curb that constant use and leaving more bandwidth for the rest.
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It's not the fact that your are ONLINE---it's the amount of bandwidth you hog up--I play this game dialup, so obviously not much bandwidth is used. On other hand, neighbor has a Hughes sat dish for internet, and after so many downloaded gigs, his access is choked off to dial-up rates until next day. (His kid is a youtube devotee) I don't think normal users will be affected--and I'd imagine the biggest users of bandwidth are squeakers who should go outside and actually make contact with other human beings of their age, perhaps play a sport that involves more than their thumbs, and web hosters, who SHOULD pay for their share of bandwidth
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I figure if I no longer will be able to afford internet, at least it will be a peaceful, somewhat isolated exsistence out here-- lots of farmland, plenty of work, plenty of family time. I've definitely got other hobbies if I can no longer play Aces High. It's all about priorities nowadays.
:O What kind of crazy talk is this? ;)
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The fact of the matter is that the only problems with the internet are caused by the isp's themselves, they would rather soak up the profits they make rather then upgradeing their infrastructure, comcast is as guilty as sin when it comes to this.
The other thing is as the use's of the internet blend with other media, ie... television, telaphone and direct access to new video content, they see fantastic growth in their profits if they can find ways of increaseing their prices based on useage rather then a basic access charge to the internet.
They create the situation, cause the problem, then provide a solution with a much greater cost, then they cry fowl and complain that they are just poor victums and must do something to save themselves from those that abuse them.
These cable giants are some of the largest greediest companys on the planet. They would not be talking about this if they didn't see huge profits to be made off future technology.
Fear not, this will never fly, as greedy companys tend to fall by the way side as others use their greed to get a foot in the door, I give the examples of IBM, ATnT, AOL all of these companys at one time had the world by the jimmys. Now today you can see cracks forming in microsoft as mac and others take advantage of tacticle mistakes like "vista" which open the door for alternative thinking by other companys offering better choises to customers.
Basically as in all things, take care of your customers or someone else will.
Just my 9 cents as this was a long one.
Don
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i remember back oh say around twenty years ago,alittle less, when 9600 bps was sreaming fast and a 60 meg Hard drive was huge we used to pay for internet by the minute. Is going it to be like that or will we be paying for the amount of info we access/download
I havent heard about it in a while but is there some twenty year tax break on the internet that is about to run out. Dont even remember where i heard it, Ill try yo find it. But it basically breaks down that the internet is going to be taxed the came way all other communication are, Anyone know about this.
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The thing is, if you have cable, you can't go anywhere else, as said cable company has a contract with the municipality. My county negotiated away my rights to EVER have cable (It currently ends 1 mile up the road) when they told Cox that less than 10 houses per mile was the cutoff for them to string cable. (I'd GLADLY pay a $1,000 impact fee, but said offer didn't help) At any rate, the 'greedy' companies have to make an acceptable profit for their stockholders, else they would poof.
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Twelve years ago, the telecoms lobbied Congress to get $200 billion in tax breaks in exchange for their promise to invest it in infrastructure and provide 86 million households across the US with at least 45Mbps service by 2006. That was over $2,300 per household. They pocketed the money and laughed all the way to the bank. Are you enjoying your 45 Mbps internet service?
Write a bad check for $200 and you'll be in handcuffs. Defraud the taxpayers out of $200 billion and not a peep will be heard from any attorney general.
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(It currently ends 1 mile up the road)
:lol You and I are in a similar boat. The end of the DSL line is 1/2 mile north on the highway.
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The thing is, if you have cable, you can't go anywhere else, as said cable company has a contract with the municipality. My county negotiated away my rights to EVER have cable (It currently ends 1 mile up the road) when they told Cox that less than 10 houses per mile was the cutoff for them to string cable. (I'd GLADLY pay a $1,000 impact fee, but said offer didn't help) At any rate, the 'greedy' companies have to make an acceptable profit for their stockholders, else they would poof.
Profit is fine, cornering the market place is illegal, these companys, i site comcast, are vast ,they have made billions of dollars over the last few years, enough in comcast's case to buy out many cable companys, Spectacore (which builds arenas) nhl hockey team "Flyers, nba basketball team, "Sixers" and have offerd to buy the Phillies and an NFL football team, don't recall which one. You have to remember what this company provides on cable along with cable TV, they are also heavy into provideing cable phone service now,they will play the "Cry poor" card every time and claim to be poor abused victums of greedy self serving customers which use and abuse their humble share holders. They continually raise rates and provide horrible down right rude service, none of the products they provide operate as they say they should. With frequent outages, slow performance, and no viable alternative in sight for customers to migrate to.
I have absolutely no pity for their filthy rich butts, i would have no problem them chargeing whatever the market could bare, if the playing feild was level, heck they don't have to worry about a playing feild, there isn't one. The day that I have a choice between two independent cable service providers in my area and they had to have "True" not regulated price competition, then i would say ok, go for it charge as you please. As it is there is no where that I'm aware of that anyone has a choice. And don't tell me about dialup, satilite or DSL, those are not cable.
These people have the market by the nuts, they don't upgrade equipment ,they don't provide the level of service they claim and they do not have any competition. And no one calls them to the carpet for it, they are greedy self serving beistegessss. Their simply looking to the future to secure an even firmer death grip on the throats of consumers.
Makeing a "PROFIT" is the one thing they do well.
They are evil, and I hate them, :D
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Now if only they would bring that internet this far out. Bandwidth of 40GB is way more than I have now (12GB download, 3GB upload), it'd nice to be able not have to worry about exceeding. Also AH does not take much on bandwidth, so for anyone worried it does, it's not true :aok. Streaming and Download big files/Downloading multiple files, will rack up Bandwidth much faster.
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Look at it this way.
ISP's start charging more for those who spend lots of time downloading porn, software, etc on the net.
This cuts down usage over all, allowing those who fly to have a better ping and more stable connection.
We know the net is seriously overloaded on several major backbones in prime time.
This is just one step of many possible to help fix that problem without having to spend billions upgrading backbones.
Seems like a decent idea to me if its used reasonably.
You'd still be able to fly, surf, download a program here & there.
But those who were constantly downloading would pay more.
Helping to curb that constant use and leaving more bandwidth for the rest.
Hate to "burst yer bubble", but rest assured it won't be "used reasonably". The method in question is simply an experimental plan to eliminate a major expenditure to improve the infrastructure of said ISP Provider...as you previously outlined above.
It will not stop OR slow down the 5% (subjective #) that supposedly eat the majority of bandwidth..the segment of power users certainly can afford the increase in charges.
I suspect that IF the plan is adopted by ANY major provider, there will be a mass exodus to DSL, ..I know I will certainly entertain the the idea of switching, just on principal. :furious
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The fact of the matter is that the only problems with the internet are caused by the isp's themselves, they would rather soak up the profits they make rather then upgradeing their infrastructure, comcast is as guilty as sin when it comes to this.
The other thing is as the use's of the internet blend with other media, ie... television, telaphone and direct access to new video content, they see fantastic growth in their profits if they can find ways of increaseing their prices based on useage rather then a basic access charge to the internet.
They create the situation, cause the problem, then provide a solution with a much greater cost, then they cry fowl and complain that they are just poor victums and must do something to save themselves from those that abuse them.
These cable giants are some of the largest greediest companys on the planet. They would not be talking about this if they didn't see huge profits to be made off future technology.
Fear not, this will never fly, as greedy companys tend to fall by the way side as others use their greed to get a foot in the door, I give the examples of IBM, ATnT, AOL all of these companys at one time had the world by the jimmys. Now today you can see cracks forming in microsoft as mac and others take advantage of tacticle mistakes like "vista" which open the door for alternative thinking by other companys offering better choises to customers.
Basically as in all things, take care of your customers or someone else will.
Just my 9 cents as this was a long one.
Don
Yup, what he said ^ :aok
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h
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You should all trust Comcast, AT&T, and TimeWarner. Really. :noid
Haven't we all had employers who invest as little as possible in infrastructure, jack up prices on customers, and come up with every possible excuse to justify pocketing the money and leaving the big problems for the next guy? I know I have.
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Just another interesting bit of info-
We had an article in our paper yesterday talking about people getting sued for posting pictures, news articles, product ratings, etc without permission.
According to that article, this posting of a news article could get the poster sued, unless he did it with permission.
Sounds like a growing trend, suing internet posters for copyright infringement on Forums, Blogs, Bulletin Boards, etc...
Another big one is apparantly suing for defamation due to posting reviews of products, etc...
The newspaper article actually mentioned a class being taken by bloggers and website administrators helping them to know the legal aspects of what the post.
MtnMan
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Hope it doesn't happen because it's total BS.
When you think about it, over half if not more of the bandwidth used is because of the add on Ads that are attached to everything. Charge the add companies if anyone. IF we had to pay for bandwidth we should be able to reduce it by shutting off the ads. And what about spam? Would we be able to mark e-mail as spam and get credit off of the bandwidth???
The internet and servers cost the same running at max capacity or low capacity. There should be no difference in price.
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I use Virginmedia cable here in the UK. They already do this to the 5% of hard core users. Not noticed any difference in game except Sundays or when America plugs in around 11PM my time....the lags not that bad. It the same as usual for me.
I can see their arguement BUT no company on this planet enhances the customer service for F*** all. There's a plot to enhance profit in every customer percieved enhancement. Being the skeptical old tosser that I am I would expect it to go like this.
Hey 5% hard core users we're slowing your connection down at "peak" times but if you upgrade to packing "xyz" for just another 10 quid a month...1Pence per hour so your service won't be degraded.
Hey you lucky 95% users there's no need to get feed up with slow speeds....why not upgrade to "xyz".
I use 20mb cable connection......Virginmedia announced not long ago that 50 will be available at the end of the year.......plots man...plots.
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This is already happening. My bill last month for the internet increased from a $34 dollar unlimited access flat fee, to a $40 dollar add on in "overage" charges for a total bill of $75 dollars. Naturally I complained because I was never notified the $34 dollar flat fee no longer exists. I opened my phone bill and "SURPRISE" ! The company billing assistance person (Someone with an Indian accent), agreed to wave the May overage charge, but said I should expect a similar bill in June if my internet use is not dramatically curtailed.
This has changed the amount of time I spend playing AH. I no longer participate in squadron ops three nights a week, and I no longer fly on Titanic Tuesdays. I was also considering taking part in some "Special" event scenarios like the Guadal Canal campaign, but that idea has been scuttled as well.
I use AT&T as my internet provider. With AT&T I get a whopping 100 mbps transfer rate. Compared to the other internet providers in my area which only average 6 mbps or less. My question is, Does the mbps transfer rate affect how Aces High performs ? If I go with a lower transfer rate, will my plane start WARPING all over the sky ? Seems like it would.
If this is the case, AT&T has a monopoly and they have me over a barrel. Having heard about these "future" planned rate increases, I've now decided to allow my subscription to AH to expire as of July 15th. The game fee of $15 dollars IS very reasonable for what you get.. but add $75 dollars + onto that and the expense very quickly becomes too much for online gaming.
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$1 per gigabyte? Wow. That would mean that on top of whatever Netflix, or whomever, charges you to stream a movie via the internet, your ISP is going to charge you another $4-$5 as well? That would make internet delivered movies prohibitively expensive forcing you to go to other sources, say, like, maybe the ISP/cable company's PPV perhaps? Oh. Now I understand.
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:noid
That 5% of heavy users is also the group on the leading edge of the technology. Push them out, and future demand by the rest will be delayed, or shifted to other means of access.
Hes right... get rid of the people on the leading edge... we get less cool stuff in a longer ammount of time... im luckey to know one of the people in that 5% hes just like some crazy computer dictionary thing.
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I've often wondered about how much internet traffic is those bulk spam and fishing e-mails running around telling everyone about how their noodle can grow big...and how some poor widow 's deceased husband has 20 million in an account that requires you to get it out...and meds from canada, and knockoff rolex watches.
I get at least 300 garbage e-mails a day running through my system, how much bandwidth does that take up?
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Rather than post two pages of quotes, I'll just say:
"I agree with everything Yanksfan has posted in its entirety."
Great posts man!
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I just may have to get a wi-fi amplifier and start borrowing internet from my neighbor's unsecured networks...
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:noid
That 5% of heavy users is also the group on the leading edge of the technology. Push them out, and future demand by the rest will be delayed, or shifted to other means of access.
Here here!!!! :rock
This is not like utility companies that have to provide more of whatever they are providing in order to meet demand from a supposedly finite source..
These corp. execs just want to line their pockets a little more is all.. There's more than enough bandwidth to go around..
Always has been.. What are they going to do to businesses and corporations that run T1,T2, or T3 lines? These corporations
use 1000X the bandwidth that anyone at home viewing their favorite series online or gaming to the wee hours of the morning
or even downloading torrents will EVER use. There was no mention of "upping" their rates, of course..
Just like the other guys said, big guys stickin' to the little guys..
And Fulmar, if I wasn't the ONLY PERSON on my block with an internet connection(frakkin' backward old hick town!! hate these idiots!), I'd consider what you said about leeching.. "My faverit thangs t'do is 4 wheelin', gettin' fat, screwin' m'sister, watchin' Iiice Road Truckers,
n' Innernettin" God, I hate these people....
Anyway, yeah... I say we just banned together, grab our paintball guns, complete over-run the larger media companies' corporate headquarters such as comcast, at+t and timewarner, and run it for ourselves.. I want some of that money!