Usage Based Billing is a joke and a major scam.

It always amazes me how large corporations can never get enough money and constantly surpass the line between good business sense to complete corporate greed. For over a decade, Internet Service Providers have been providing unlimited Internet usage at a relatively reasonable price. Today, these same corporations no longer provide unlimited Internet usage and have imposed draconian data caps. They have moved from unlimited data transfer to a mere 80 gigabyte limit for $65 per month and an additional 1 gigabyte will cost you $1.50, even though it only costs $0.03 for the ISP to transfer it over their networks. This new policy that the ISPs are trying to implement is called Usage Based Billing (UBB) and it is becoming common in North America and is slowly being adopted world wide. These companies have realized that they can charge for each additional gigabyte a person uses instead of giving away unlimited data transfer. They want to convert Internet packages to the same model as we see with cellphones today. With your cellphone you only get a few text messages in your monthly plan and if you go over they will charge you an arm and a leg for additional texts that cost them virtually nothing. In today's day and age with people watching TV over the Internet, playing games, downloading pictures, videos, files and making long distance calls we as users need more bandwidth instead of less. However, the ISPs want to stop us from using the Internet to do these things so that they can charge us individually for them. These corporations realize that if we are doing so many wonderful things on the Internet for free they are unable to sell us their home phone service, cable T.V., long distance plan etc. That is why they are trying to limit your Internet usage through UBB to a ridiculously small amount so that you will not be able to do these free things over the Internet anymore. They will become too costly for you as you surpass your meager monthly cap. For example, to use Netflix which only costs you about $8 a month, you need to be able to use a significant amount of Internet bandwidth. If the provider caps you, they are trying to force you to go back to their Cable TV for $60 a month for a rather basic package and box rental.

There is plenty of bandwith on the provider's networks but that is not as profitable as giving you very little bandwith each month and then charging you extra for additional use. I find it hilarious when I call my ISP and they say I don't need additional bandwith because I never go over my monthly usage. I try really hard not to yell at them and tell them that they are morons. If they cap you at 80 gigs and tell you that they will charge you for each additional gig, I make sure that I stay within the small limit alloted to me. I do need more bandwidth and I don't go over my monthly cap so that I don't give these greedy corporations even a penny more. They have upset millions of people in North America and world wide and continue to harm the relationship between them and their customers. In the future they should not be surprised when their own customers lash back at them by moving to smaller ISP's who are less greedy and offer a reasonable amount of data for a reasonable amount of money.

Internet usage is becoming more expensive not because it really is but because the large corporations are trying to inflate the price so that they can make huge profits and gouge their customers as much as they can. The Internet has become an integral part in our homes and people have to realize what is happening with Usage Based Billing and fight back against this new policy that the large ISPs are trying to force on us. So far, many people are not very knowledgeable about this subject and I hope that they take it upon themselves to research it and get to know the facts. The large Corporations do not care about their customers and they will continue these business practices until we stop them by demanding something fair. If we do nothing, the large corporations will definitely charge us a lot more for a lot less. We would love to hear your own opinion on Usage Based Billing so please leave your opinions in the comment section below.

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