Hello,
as a former ISP customer service worker, I can say:
Usage-based tariffs have always been around. Back in the days of the 56k modems, it was based mainly on the time you were logged in, andEAY back in then, there was the factor (at least here in Europe) of WHEN you were dialing in. The late-night hours were the cheapest hours, and at business hours, it got really evil on your purse.
Later, after a lot of customers had access to ISDN, then DSL, we could offer flat rates. Of course, that was a bold move, as that caused customers to stay logged in and, as download managers allowed for 24/7 download queues, there came in the problem that these guys raped the ISPs hard, and the low-usage customers had to pay up for the power-users.
As we provided faster and faster DSL speeds, and as harddrives got bigger, companies put out a lot of new tariff models, among them the traffic-based ones. You could go for several packages, like 5 gigabytes, 10 gigabytes, you name it.
And the surplus usage got pretty costly, if you had no discipline. I remember a small company that seemd to have emule on all day, as the drivers where driving around, and the guys in the office leeched porn and software all day. They knocked down the included 10 GBs on 1 1/2 days, so go figure the behemoth of a bill they received. Talk about ruining yourself.
Well, we gave them a good will deal, and advised them to either to go for a flat rate or go easy on their up-/downloading. They were smart enough to follow that and went for the flat rate.
Problem is: These days, with computers and internet speeds, it is really extremely rough on the costs the companies have if there are too many customers who use peer-to-peer a lot.
You know, they have to buy their traffic, too and they have to calculate how much they buy to be able to satisfy their customers. And, just like the volume-based tariffs, when THEY exceed their bought traffic, they have to pay up some serious extra-cash, too
