ISPs charging subscribers for how much data they use can benefit...
ISPs charging subscribers for how much data they use can benefit consumers, while doing away with usage-based pricing -- as some critics of the practice seek -- could hurt customers, an economist whose nonprofit often opposes regulation said Wednesday. “Usage-based…
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pricing is increasingly common for broadband services,” Phoenix Center Chief Economist George Ford said (http://xrl.us/bm87io). A “simple numerical example” shows “such pricing behavior can make consumers and society better off,” he wrote. “The fact that firms use differential pricing, even lacking any cost reason to do so, does not imply a neutrality rule is an improvement. This conclusion, when combined with the existence of differences in costs of service and a workably competitive landscape for video content delivery, suggests regulatory oversight of usage-based pricing is unlikely to improve social well-being."