I can see that. I just look at the NZ market and see competition working. :)
You're right, $1.20 feels expensive and we all grumble about it. Even so, I did some math and found out it was cheaper to stream video at $1.20/GB than it was to pay for cable tv, so I cut the cable and upped my data bundle. :) It's all relative.
I'd argue that it's only when there's a single monopoly provider does pricing start to stifle innovation. The NZ ISP market is split into wholesale/retail, with an unbundled local loop and a regulated wholesale price. ISPs can purchase DSL connections from the wholesaler, or pay for access to the cabinet to install their own equipment.
Even when NZ was analog they had innovation. The biggest one was the creation of "Free" ISPs, where they lived off of the termination fees that they were able to charge the originating carrier - much the same as free conference calling and international long distance services out of Ohio. That lasted about as long too. :)
NZ has tried unmetered service several times, with really bad results. Throttling, low bandwidth, ugly. High traffic users would shift to the unmetered plan and overwhelm the provisioning ratios. You ended up with a service that only bulk users (low throughput, high volume) would want to use.
However, since unbundling (2006), we've had pretty vibrant retail ISP competition, which goes through ebbs and flows of price competition. The shift to fiber is currently causing lots of competition. :) We've got 3 mobile carriers and 7 major ISPs. The ISPs all offer fixed phone service as well, some on their own equipment, some from the wholesaler.
The carriers have learned that the market isn't going to pay extra for fiber, but it is expecting more service and bundled data. Some are currently grumbling about that, but their competitors are jumping on the treadmill so everyone has to. We're starting to see fiber accounts with 1TB for US$115, which is US$0.12c/GB, a much better price.
I look at my connection and I've got a 100/10 link, and I can pull 30-50mbps of international traffic out of it during busy hour. I can get the full 100mbps to the ISP's servers - the local Steam mirror can be wicked fast. I attribute this to the carrier perceiving me as a source of revenue to be encouraged instead of a cost to be driven out.
You're right, $1.20 feels expensive and we all grumble about it. Even so, I did some math and found out it was cheaper to stream video at $1.20/GB than it was to pay for cable tv, so I cut the cable and upped my data bundle. :) It's all relative.
I'd argue that it's only when there's a single monopoly provider does pricing start to stifle innovation. The NZ ISP market is split into wholesale/retail, with an unbundled local loop and a regulated wholesale price. ISPs can purchase DSL connections from the wholesaler, or pay for access to the cabinet to install their own equipment.
Even when NZ was analog they had innovation. The biggest one was the creation of "Free" ISPs, where they lived off of the termination fees that they were able to charge the originating carrier - much the same as free conference calling and international long distance services out of Ohio. That lasted about as long too. :)
NZ has tried unmetered service several times, with really bad results. Throttling, low bandwidth, ugly. High traffic users would shift to the unmetered plan and overwhelm the provisioning ratios. You ended up with a service that only bulk users (low throughput, high volume) would want to use.
However, since unbundling (2006), we've had pretty vibrant retail ISP competition, which goes through ebbs and flows of price competition. The shift to fiber is currently causing lots of competition. :) We've got 3 mobile carriers and 7 major ISPs. The ISPs all offer fixed phone service as well, some on their own equipment, some from the wholesaler.
The carriers have learned that the market isn't going to pay extra for fiber, but it is expecting more service and bundled data. Some are currently grumbling about that, but their competitors are jumping on the treadmill so everyone has to. We're starting to see fiber accounts with 1TB for US$115, which is US$0.12c/GB, a much better price.
I look at my connection and I've got a 100/10 link, and I can pull 30-50mbps of international traffic out of it during busy hour. I can get the full 100mbps to the ISP's servers - the local Steam mirror can be wicked fast. I attribute this to the carrier perceiving me as a source of revenue to be encouraged instead of a cost to be driven out.