I’ve heard this before

No one professes to like it. They claim that they’re forced into it. They use words like “inevitable” and “unavoidable.” They claim that since a minority of people misuse the system a majority of people must pay more. Or pay differently.

I know what you’re thinking. Airlines, explaining why they need to charge for checked baggage. Wrong, it’s broadband operators explaining why they need to institute usage-based billing models.

The notion might seem reasonable enough, but it is destined to fail for a number of reasons. The good news is that hidden within the FCC’s recent Comcast slap down is a path forward for broadband operators yielding superior traffic management while also enhancing revenue opportunities.

But first, why is usage-based billing a really bad idea?

Consumers don’t get it. While many understand that a gigabyte is a measure of file size, the average consumer isn’t able to correlate web activities—e.g., downloading movies, uploading photos—with bandwidth usage. And anyone claiming that consumers also don’t understand kilowatt hours might want to think twice before comparing themselves to regulated monopolies.

The bill could be really big. Even the most eco-ignorant consumer, leaving lights and appliances turned on 24x7, is unlikely to receive a power bill more than two or three times the monthly average. Compare this with the following hypothetical example: a 5Mbps broadband service costs $34.95 per month and carries a 40 gigabyte per month cap. Each gigabyte above the cap costs a buck. Before going on vacation, your teenage son decides to download YouTube (like, the whole site). Assuming the broadband service could actually run at 5Mbps (few operators will admit that it can’t), the bill at the end of the month? $1,637.45, almost 50 times the base price.

Never change the price without improving the product. One of the reasons airlines encountered such stiff headwinds with their checked-luggage policy is that the service wasn’t improved. Bags didn’t arrive more quickly or get lost less frequently. Consumers dislike this, especially where technology is concerned. Although they may talk about fairness, few broadband operators claim that usage-based billing results in a better broadband product, it’s just priced differently.