Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief

September 25, 2006

2 Min Read
10 Meg Is Here!

6:00 AM -- I just boosted my bandwidth again, this time to 10 Mbit/s. Charter Communications Inc. , my service provider, charges me a little more because I don't take their TV service along with my bandwidth subscription. But, interestingly, they aren't exactly advertising the bump up to 10 Meg in my neighborhood, since it's not widely available.

But here's an interesting thing, I think: A look back at my bandwidth prices paid over a three-year period shows that my top download speed is up considerably, but the price per day is down about 3.8 percent.

Table 1: What I Get, What I Pay for Charter Bandwidth

Date

Downstream

Upstream

Price Per Month (After Tax)

Price Per Day

Price Per Megabit (Per Month)

Sep-03

1.5 Mbit/s

128 kbit/s

$62.91

$2.10

$41.94

Mar-04

2 Mbit/s

128 kbit/s

$41.23

$1.37

$20.61

Jul-04

3 Mbit/s

256 kbit/s

$41.23

$1.37

$13.74

Jan-05

3 Mbit/s

256 kbit/s

$52.05

$1.74

$17.35

Mar-06

3 Mbit/s

256 kbit/s

$32.46

$1.08

$10.82

Sep-06

10 Mbit/s

1 Mbit/s

$60.47

$2.02

$6.04

Mar-07*

10 Mbit/s

1 Mbit/s

$86.38

$2.88

$8.63

* Projected price based on the end of a 6-month promotion





The price per megabit of available bandwidth has fallen by about 80 percent in just three years. I'm not complaining -- but how do service providers even hope to make money on bandwidth when prices are falling that fast?

— Phil Harvey, Cheap Bits Editor, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

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