Stop Telling Us How Many Emails Fit Under A Broadband Cap
Found on Techdirt on Thursday, 13 November 2008
ISPs are using the number of emails as a criteria because emails use up almost no bandwidth -- so no matter what the cap is, the answer is "a lot."
Focusing on emails is like telling someone that a full tank of gas in their car will allow them to travel six hundred million millimeters. That's meaningless for someone who wants to know if they can actually get from San Francisco to Los Angeles on a single tank of gas.
The problem is that the majority of Internet users has no clue about how the size of an email relates to an mp3 or movie. Sure, music and videos are probably bigger, but how much? If an ISP caps you and tells you that you can still send out 10,000 mails a month without any problems, then start mailing the latest Linux ISO to your friends. Voila, lawsuit coming for misleading advertising.