TECHNOLOGY TIPS - INTERNET CONNECTIVITY LIMITS PORTEND BIG BILLS FOR PHONE COMPANIES
Guy Distaffen from upstate New York switched Internet providers three months ago. His phone company offered one year of free service with the traditional two-year contract. Then his phone company, Frontier Communications Corp., updated its policies stating that his Internet activity would be limited each month.
"We felt that (sic) we were suckered,"
said Distaffen.
Frontier is one of several
providers that are trying to curb the amount of traffic on
their networks. If that does not work the company may make the subscribers who download the most pay
more.
The consequences of this move by a phone company has a great deal of impact on consumers and companies alike who would have to monitor the amount of data their Internet use entails.
Cable companies have been at the forefront of imposing and
talking about usage caps, because their lines are shared between households.
Frontier's announcement is noteworthy because it is a phone company - and it is
matching a seemingly low ceiling set by a main cable rival: just 5 gigabytes per
month, the equivalent of about 3 DVD-quality movies.
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