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
http://www.lightreading.com/do...