Following up on the net neutrality workshop organized by VATM earlier this year, in a second meeting last week there seemed to be some consensus among German operators that charging content providers for downstream traffic sent mostly from the United States through their networks to German subscribers, though an intriguing idea, will not work. And these subscribers will remain their main revenue source also in the near future. So what can ISPs do to counter the downward spiral of ever faster and cheaper flat rate plans?
There are many possible options, many of which I have discussed here before. Network operators have to provision their networks for peak-hour utilizations, which is a costly endeavor. So why not, for example, rate-limit non-interactive, high-volume applications such as P2P file sharing during these times for a discounted monthly rate? Most users would not even notice the difference, and the relieve for the network could be substantial. Why not offer premium services at an extra charge that prioritize real-time applications such as online gaming and Internet telephony that would otherwise suffer significantly in performance during high-load periods? Why not offer metered high-volume downloads during the day which are free at nighttime?
There are many possibilities. The challenge is for the operators to find out what their customers really want, when it comes to new services, and what they are happy to accept, when it comes to service restrictions. Whatever the outcome, the technology to implement this is here today.
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