Proposed FCC Net Rules Would Cripple Video Consumption

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski's network neutrality proposal includes a big red flag that could seriously impact video consumption on digital platforms: usage-based pricing (USP).

UBP is, of course, a euphemism for metering; the more content you consume, the more you pay. Given that video is far and away the most bandwidth-intensive data in the pipeline, any application that uses it is going to become more expensive. Think of all the offerings UBP is going to shake up: streaming of films and TV series (Netflix, iTunes), video chat (Skype), live video (UStream). Phone and cable companies have clamored for UBP for a while, and experimented with variations on the model in recent years, most notably AT&T. And there’s no question they were going to have to head in this direction or risk losing control of their networks. But ISPs are going to have to be really careful how they price metered plans if Genachowski’s proposal makes it through.