Verizon plays coy with bandwidth caps

Verizon has no plans to implement consumption-based bandwidth caps on its Internet service - but left the door open to pursuing that option under certain circumstances.

In remarks Tuesday at a NAB panel discussion, Link Hoewing, assistant vice president for Internet and technology [1] issues at Verizon (Verizon's point man for lobbying Capitol Hill), said he didn't want to "predict the future" but that currently selling flat-rate speeds without bandwidth caps was doing well in the marketplace, while cable companies had "network constraints," among other issues which lead them to caps.  (FierceIPTV tweeted [2] his remarks live from NAB).

Hoewing went deeper into the usage caps issue in a Thursday blog post, trying to frame the issue as market experimentation in highly competitive markets to figure out what consumers want and don't want, with broadband providers "testing consumers reactions." 

"Consumers clearly have choices and are making their views known," wrote Hoewing. "That is not to say that things won't change over time or that new offerings won't be better received. We'll just have to wait and see what happens."

However, Hoewing goes on to suggest that "usage packages" could have a place in a phone company's future. "I can see ways that usage packages could be priced that could really help many segments of the market, such as low level users," he writes. "I can't predict what will happen in the future as the market evolves. Consumers are in charge, and we'll just have to see how they react to the market as it continues to evolve."

For more:
- PC Magazine scours Link's blog post. Article [1].
- Read Link's blog post [3] here.

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