Access providers capping monthly limits on bandwidth consumption could be a threat to the wonderful world of streaming media.  Honestly, I don’t buy ANY physical media anymore, and rarely actually purchase a song or movie.  I have entered the world of subscription based music services and renting movies from the cloud.  This is the type of thing that scares the hell out of current access providers with their current technology.  If I can get access to 8 Million songs on Rhapsody and rent any movie I want on my AppleTV, what is the point of owning anything?  I just don’t get it.

Current pricing models show trends towards capping of bandwidth consumption and a move away from truly unlimited plans.  Even the current “unlimited” plans have some small print caps in place.  How does this differ for Wireline access providers vs. my Wireless access provider?  How will this impact my future as a bandwidth consuming media hog?
If I am Rhapsody, Netflix, Apple, etc… I would be focused on educating the access providers on the Value of an unlimited stream to a consumer.  My concern would be starting to see tiered pricing for not only limited caps, but limiting based on site.  Sure, net neutrality is supposed to solve that problem however I could see a case where access providers could claim a detriment to their business and not have to fall in line. What if you have to pay $15 a month for Rhapsody and an additional $10 for the Rhapsody add on pack for your ISP? Ugh.. that would suck.
Soon enough the mass consumer group will be getting more media on demand, not just us geeks.  As that happens, Access providers will be looking to drive the cost down and maintain margins on an already commoditized business.  Currently they are doing ok because of the percentage for downloaders being small.  If you look at AT&T Wireless though, they have suffered from bandwidth constraints on the back-hauls for their towers and far too many iPhones.  Even at some point, my 8MB cable connection is not enough.  FIOS?  Sure, maybe for a bit.. but until we have enough bandwidth at low KB costs for the access provider, this will always be a concern.  More so in the coming year or two.
It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out over the coming years.  Wireline ISPs and Wireless Data providers have a large challenge ahead of them.  Until they can either solve it technically, or convince me that streaming Rhapsody for a couple hours a day over my 3G network isn’t good, they can only pressure me via price.  That is the screw they will be turning on us all soon.  Stand by for more on this story for sure.  If I can’t then extract the value out of my music subscription service, I could choose to kill it.

Posted via email from Torgerson.tv