Re:Facing net neutrality critics, Verizon lifts data caps on...
by usrusr on Sunday August 26, 2018 @08:27PM
(#17848687)
> Instead of adding more lanes or limiting the number of cars per hour, you start limiting the distance that cars can go. How is that going to help?
It helps by making people think twice about doing unnecessary trips. Unlike driving, where people's patience for sitting in traffic is naturally limited, appetite for IP traffic is almost unbounded. Data caps prevent the equivalent of continuously running your toilet flush.
Re:Facing net neutrality critics, Verizon lifts data caps on...
by shmerl on Sunday August 26, 2018 @10:49PM
(#17849156)
Except data caps still won't prevent the actual problem, I already explained above why. Even if you pretend it's a psychological deterrent - it's not really a solution to the technical issue. And ISPs will try to avoid admitting the obvious, that caps are a convenient tool to rip everyone off.
If they are worried about congestion, they have only two things they can do: 1. build their network up. 2. start reducing bandwidth of each connection, if they are too many of them.
To make the analogy more easy to digest. Let's say you have a highway that's commonly overloaded. Instead of adding more lanes or limiting the number of cars per hour, you start limiting the distance that cars can go. How is that going to help? It will still get congested.
So ISPs should stop pretending already that caps are a network management tool - it's not. It's a user fleecing and anti-competitive tool they use to increase their profits.