SysAdmins Log

So I was curious how much ISPs are charging per gigabyte these days, so I did some digging. Here is what I found. My numbers won’t be 100% accurate, but I feel they provide a decent overview.

For this ISPs with no specified cap I will assume 250 GB (like that imposed by Comcast), so “no cap” ISPs numbers are generated based on a 250gb cap.

Cablevision (Optimum)  – Speed 15 mbs down, 2 up,  at roughly 40 dollars a month (any promotions excluded) that comes out to about .16 cents per GB, that to me seems pretty reasonable.

Comcast – Speed 15mpbs down and 3 up – 250 GB cap at roughly 45 dollars a month that comes out to 18 cents per GB, still, could be a lot worse.

Time Warner – Speed 15 mbps down and roughly 1 up, at 47 a month, that comes out to 18 cents per GB.

Verizon FiOS – 10-15mbps (yay uncertainty) down, no up mentioned (assume no better than 1) at 54.99 a month (huh?!) you get 22 cents a month. Now granted physics gets in the way of getting your bandwidth goodness, at that cost I certainly hope I am getting closer to that 10-15 megs than I get with the other above mentioned ISPs….

ATT DSL – up to 6mbps down and 768kbps up – no cap (assume 250gb) at 45 a month that comes out to 18 cents… that is a hard sell given they don’t offer the same speeds as their competitors.

Fronteir – 10 mbps down and probably no higher than 1 up – no cap (assume 250gb) that comes up 45 dollars a month which is 18 cents, compared to ATT, that is far more desirable as far as DSL speeds go for the price.

Granted I can’t mention every ISP (that would take more time than I really have to spend), I think this gives a decent overview of what ISPs on average are charging us per gigabyte. (Which is 18.33 cents per GB ny the way)

My question to them however is, is this really necessary? My current power supplier (an Iberdrola USA subcompany) charges me roughly 7 cents per kwh (delivery and supply costs).  Granted ISPs are not “generating” bandwidth, they are supplying it, but in a matter of speaking, they aren’t very distant from each other in terms of being service delivery companies, what is driving their costs up so much?

ISPs are claiming this is due to trying to cover “infrastructure improvement” costs, however if they are upgrading their infrastructure why have we yet to see these benefits?

Granted Some companies like Comcast and Cablevision are rolling out DOCSIS 3.0 (for a hefty price) but most have not yet… despite these “infrastructure improvements” are still touted as the reason.

Another decent article on this is seen here on ArsTechnica