Why is bandwidth so precious?

[igowerf]

Free webspace places limit the amount of bandwidth that a site is allowed to use every day. When we pay for web hosting, we have to pay a certain amount to get a certain amount of bandwidth per month. What makes bandwidth so precious? Is it just an indirect way of paying for the maintenance on servers that are taxed by the use of bandwidth?

 

[hungrypete]

becuase evil heartless communications coorporations set the prices.

 

[bozo1]

Quite simple actually. Bandwidth costs money. You are sharing bandwidth with all of the other customers the site hosts. Bandwidth is finite. The more one customer uses the less others have available. The ISP then must upgrade their pipes. The people using the most bandwidth should pay for most of the costs.

No different than what we do here at work. Our Customer Service department just decided that they want to enable our customers to order stuff online, look up bills, warranties, etc. Fine and dandy but since this is going to take away from the bandwidth we have today, they are going to have to pay for the pipe upgrades we are going to put into place.

 

[FuzzyLogic]

i'd have to agree with hugry pete

 

[blakeatwork]

Because the telecom companies have oodles and oodles of unlit fibre running through the ground in North America, just sitting there gathering dust( or mice or whatever) So, in order to keep the unlit fibre "running" they have to get the money form somewhere else ie limited webhosting services....

plus all the CS freeks don't help either...

 

[shallows]

Bandwidth is metered for the exact same reason that water and electricity are metered.

There is only a finite amount to go around, so in order to prevent resource abuse, you need to pay for what you use.

 

[yakko]

<< becuase evil heartless communications coorporations set the prices. >>

hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's funny. Tell me another one.