You can sense where the Internet may be heading by looking at the bandwidth policy platforms that core infrastructure vendors are offering to carriers.
With equipment from Tekelec, a major networking equipment player, cable companies can monitor and allocate bandwidth dynamically, as well as grant special deals to subscribers.
For example, a video web site could temporarily allow downloads to not count against a customer’s data limits as set by the cable ISP. Or the web site of a content provider could purchase better QoS—lower latency or more bandwidth—between its servers and subscribers’ endpoint devices.
Tekelec’s Camiant Policy Management platform would handle all this.
There’s nothing inherently illegal with allowing carriers to price discriminate based on volume, service, or even time of day.Continue reading