[andygrif]

I'm coming into this discussion a little late, but the thread did make interesting reading.

I'm not sure which side of the fence I'm on in relation to flat rate vs pay what you use. The things I'm considering are:

Internet take up - we need to speed up roll out to the masses of broadband internet connections. This will be impeded with limitations on what you download, unpredictable costs etc.

However, important as the internet is (and as much as I hate these silly analogies which bear no relation to a unique product, e.g cars) they did it with water meters, and water is a matter is a matter of life and death.

Another angle is that internet providers buy bandwidth based on useage. However, why is this? If I am an ISp and I pay for 1TB link, surely I should be negotiating a price based on using the 1TB, not if I use half of it. If it is good enough for the ISP's to charge their customers on this bases, why don't they negotiate the same deal with their providers?

I think the bottom line for most people can be summed up pretty easily - neither for nor against, as long as it works well and doesn't cost any more a month.