[b0k]

"unlimited" plans are subsidised by low utilization users who are getting less than what they paid for.

to pull it off properly as a service provider, you really need to have a solid understanding of user usage patterns.

one of the big problems that tips the low/high utilization ratio unfavorably is that unlimited plans that are primarily marketed for being unlimited tend to attract users in the high utilization bracket.

so the challenge for service providers is not just understanding users and understanding that ratio but figuring out how you are going to market to, and signup, those users who will be in the low utilization bracket and will essentially be paying for something they won't be user (which is hard to do)

it isn't hard to find case studies of companies that launch optimistically with one pricing plan around unlimited, to then only go back and revise their pricing and break promises because they didn't understand their users and were unable to market to and signup low utilization users.

one recent example is Bitcasa