Back in January I did a quick analysis of current prices for IP transit data here because I continue to be amazed that some DSL providers keep threatening to throttle or traffic shape users with above average monthly data consumption [in the hundreds of GB range]. With IP transit prices being as low as they are today I wonder if there is really a significant financial reason for that?
Anyway, today I came across another interesting number: A server hosting service provider in the UK includes 10 TB of data volume over a 100 MBit/s link per month in a 30 pounds hosting package. After that the line rate is reduced to 10 MBit/s and any extra data still remains free of charge. Note that the 30 pounds are not only for the data volume but includes a high end 4 core CPU, 16 GB RAM and 2x 3 TB hard drive RAID, power to run this beast 24/7 in the package. If after the 10 TB you still want the full 100 MBit/s line speed, you pay 6 pounds per Terabyte extra.
In other words, a couple of hundred Gigabytes is nothing for them…
I assume there’s a huge difference between transit prices of a server farm located in the proximity of a large peering point and the costs broadband providers have to bear for running a nationwide backhaul. As long as you are not a former state monopolist and own a fibre network reaching every local exchange you will have to rely partly on leased capacity to the local exchanges and if you are an ADSL reseller like 1&1 (in Germany they also offer ADSL besides server- and webhosting), who leases all the infrastructure from third parties, traffic costs are probably even higher. Actually I have only heard of 1&1 bothering data hungry subscribers so far but e.g. I’ve heard that Vodafone Germany do not offer broadband service based on Deutsche Telekom’s bit-stream access platform (which they only did in rural areas where it didn’t pay off to install their own DSLAMs) because of the high pricing and the growing overall data volume which rendered such subscriptions uneconomical. Another reason why providers may want to get rid off leechers is the administrative expenses when right holders or law enforcement agencies start inquiring for subscribers’ identities or even start to sue you if you refuse to share the desired information. On the other hand if you share such information too loosely with right holders, you run the risk to get sued from your customers besides suffering a damage of reputation.