[makecheck]

There is usage-based billing for utilities, so it is theoretically possible to do this fairly with other things. However, it requires the corresponding regulations: for gas and electricity, you have meters; you also have labeling requirements on the products you buy, so that you can tell what they're going to be using.

Apps don't have meters, and they don't have any mandate to tell you that they're hogs. Therefore, tiered bandwidth billing is unfair: it is simply not possible for a customer to know when they're buying something that will cost them dearly in terms of bandwidth usage, nor is it feasible to isolate which of 100 apps on their phone is responsible for their overage billing in a given month.

[lutorm]

You do have a point, but really: when was the last time you went and looked at your meter to make sure you weren't using too much? Or looked at how much energy something used when deciding whether to buy it?

The problem is that power use is limited by physics. If your gas stove valve was stuck open and was venting your gas line you'd know, because the house would turn into an oven. Bandwidth use is not limited by any laws except the capacity of the device, so the difference in usage can vary over a much larger range than power use can.

[_pi]

I see lots of geeks rooting their Droids and installing ntop or similar utilities when this sad day comes.