vRRitti.com, providing sentiency

• As of December 2009, broadband data traffic surpassed voice traffic on global wireless networks for the first time, according to statistics compiled by Ericsson and recently released by the company.
• Cisco Systems is one of several companies that conducts detailed traffic analyses on networks of all types – on a global basis. It has been finding that 1 percent of global users are consuming 20 percent of global bandwidth, consistent with other findings that a small minority of users are consuming a disproportionate share of network resources.  And if a few users are consuming far more of their share of the bandwidth available, one of the best techniques for managing the situation is to make those people pay extra. Among service providers, that’s thoroughly uncontroversial. That’s not the case with some members of the public who equate any measure that limits them at the all-they-caneat bandwidth buffet to be a violation of how they believe the Internet is supposed to work. Usage caps, usage limits, paying based on usage – they’ve made that a network neutrality issue. Consumption billing and network neutrality are tied inextricably with network and traffic management. And by virtue of the common element of metering and monitoring traffic, service providers know those issues are also tied in to quality assurance – both quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE), as well as the promise of personalized and/or customizable services.
• If the top 1 percent of all broadband connections are responsible for 20 percent of all network traffic, “that’s a great case for metering,” said Brown. “Throttling will impact only 1 percent of users. Look at AT&T’s argument – that’s what it is.” When you introduce tiers, the idea is if you want to sign up for broadband but don’t want to subsidize the heavy users, then you get a lower price in exchange for a usage cap you’re unlikely to hit. “The media portray this as a negative,” she said. “You pay less and get less, but you weren’t using it anyway.” “Ultimately, when we get to this level, we’ll have tiers of service – not just for bandwidth, but also for the experience. Service providers will need to monitor and meter to be able to get back to customers to offer a tier appropriate to what the customer is doing.  “You’ll get customers realizing, ‘Oh! It might be better for me to go to a different tier – it might save me some money. I use more music than video, so maybe I can sign up to a music tier.’”
• “The benefit is to the consumer, but it also benefits the operator,” Riley explained. “If I can have a meaningful dialog with the consumer, there’s more stickiness to the service. Consumers end up working with their providers to customize their experience.”

http://www.cedmagazine.com/article.aspx?id=171298