So I've never really understood why landlines should charge per data transferred. I mean, after all the communication lines have been run and hardware has been setup, the only additional fees are for power, right?
Lets say I'm an ISP and I have a gigabit connection to an internet backbone. I pay $X/month for it regardless of how much data is transferred. If I run fiber out to each of my customers that can run at gigabit speeds, how should I regulate/charge each user?
1. I could artificially rate limit them to less than the physical link speed. So I could let each user connect at 10 mbit/s. That would let me have many customers using there max speed at once and if I have 100 or less customers then they are guaranteed to get their full 10mbit/s. If I have more then they only get 10mbit/s at off peak times.
2. I could let everyone connect at the full gigabit speeds and put a quota on how much data they can send in order to prevent hogging.
Would you rather than 10mbit/s with unlimited data or 10mbit/s * 1 month of data transfer at a max rate of 1 gbit/s?
I imagine that you might want the first or second option depending on your use case.
[edit: forgot third option]
3. I could do fancy traffic shaping and make sure everyone gets at least 1/(number of active users) bandwidth and can burst up to full gigabit speeds when the connection is idle.
This seems like the best way to share the resource fairly.
See this is only with an even playing field. You're thinking about how you'd design a network in a world that didn't have all the embedded rules and dogma that we have in the US.
The biggest question is not network management policies, but last mile access. There are tons of ISPs with great bandwidth practices. Guess what? None of them have enough footprint to compete with the big guys.
The problem is not network management, it is edge distribution.
1. I could artificially rate limit them to less than the physical link speed. So I could let each user connect at 10 mbit/s. That would let me have many customers using there max speed at once and if I have 100 or less customers then they are guaranteed to get their full 10mbit/s. If I have more then they only get 10mbit/s at off peak times.
2. I could let everyone connect at the full gigabit speeds and put a quota on how much data they can send in order to prevent hogging.
Would you rather than 10mbit/s with unlimited data or 10mbit/s * 1 month of data transfer at a max rate of 1 gbit/s?
I imagine that you might want the first or second option depending on your use case.
[edit: forgot third option]
3. I could do fancy traffic shaping and make sure everyone gets at least 1/(number of active users) bandwidth and can burst up to full gigabit speeds when the connection is idle.
This seems like the best way to share the resource fairly.