PORTLAND, Maine — When Camden-based Redzone Wireless launched its fixed wireless broadband network last week, two of its three plans included something unique for residential service in Maine: monthly data allotments.
Redzone uses 4G LTE radio technology similar to cellphone data plans to deliver home Internet. But the service also shares a pricing characteristic, with two of its three plans specifying how much data can be included for the month. Any unused allotment rolls over to future months, resetting each year.
The company’s home broadband plans are the first in Maine tiered by both quality and quantity (though its highest speed tier, at $89 per month, offers unlimited service).
Increasingly heavy data use, driven by streaming video, stands to make broadband providers take another look at unmetered service.
The country’s largest broadband provider, Comcast, has rolled out usage allotments in various areas of the country. Charter Communications, which is in line to buy Time Warner, also instituted usage caps in certain markets, but got rid of limits built into plans in favor of claiming the right to throttle a specific user’s data if it is “wholly uncharacteristic of a typical user” of their service.
While usage limits on home broadband plans haven’t taken hold as an industry standard, Redzone’s billing is a sign customers will likely need to pay closer attention to data use at home in the coming years.
A data cap? Michael Forcillo, Redzone’s vice president of marketing, said he objects to the term “data cap” or “usage cap,” as the service doesn’t shut off when that limit is hit.
Rather, customers are charged a fee per gigabyte beyond their allotment or they can switch between the two metered plans.
Forcillo said “the idea of unlimited, unmetered plans is going away,” noting the shift cellphone data providers have made away from unlimited monthly data plans. On a network with fixed capacity, Forcillo said that billing structure is a matter of fairness.
“One customer who is driving huge volume all the time can really impact other people’s experience,” Forcillo said.
It’s also a part of the company’s business plan, as the number of its possible customers per tower installation depends on the total use. Forcillo said Redzone’s data allotments will help the company better plan according to demand and keep its speeds close to the advertised rates.
Like with most cellphone plans, the company’s website allows customers to track their data usage or set alerts when they near the monthly limit.
“We have to go through the hard medicine that people don’t really understand how much data they use at home,” Forcillo said. “We’ll provide tools and estimates to help customers see that, but if they have the right plan, it’s not something they have to worry about.”
Phil Lindley, executive director of the state’s broadband expansion agency, the ConnectME Authority, said how the new billing system affects customers depends in part on how the limits are enforced and what the competition delivers in response.
“I think if Redzone works out as they say with the high bandwidth and good coverage, I think the data caps are going to be a small issue,” Lindley said. “But you never know.”
Where’s the kink in Internet’s series of tubes? Phone lines and coaxial cables were not designed with a flurry of digital data in mind. Those networks, where they deliver Internet service, have been repurposed to do so.
Eventually, that cable or phone line likely meets up with fiber-optic cable at what’s called a “node,” where your information is then beamed off to its destination.
The same goes for wireless service for cellphone data or Redzone’s network. Jim McKenna, Redzone’s president, said during the company’s launch in Waterville, Portland and Great Diamond Island last week that its network wouldn’t be possible without the fiber that provides its “backhaul” service.
Redzone’s trying to limit congestion between its users and the node connecting to fiber-optic service, which is super fast but also very expensive to build out.
McKenna cited an estimate that full buildout of fiber-optic cable to homes and businesses in the state would cost about $3 billion, a level of investment he said is unlikely for rural Maine and a cost that creates some opportunity for Redzone to provide what’s called “last-mile” service, or the off-ramps to the Internet’s fiber-optic Interstate.
Wired infrastructure strung up on telephone poles generally requires a certain customer density for providers to enter those areas, and Maine’s harsh winter weather adds to the risk of those investments.
If Redzone’s ventures in more densely populated areas succeed this year, McKenna said the company will start to seek out among about 600 fiber-connect cell towers the state the rural areas where it can set up shop.
As general data demand goes up, of course, so will the price. Netflix is one thing. Cloud-based services are another. Both are driving up demand on personal data transfers that show no sign of stopping, particularly with the introduction of Internet-connected smart home devices.
For high-definition video streaming alone, the major vendors recommend speeds of about 5 megabits per second, which is the basic service for Redzone. That plan comes with a limit of 100 gigabytes, which Forcillo said is above a household average the company has observed based on about 500 households over seven years.
As usage patterns change, Forcillo said the company may still tweak the pricing on its network that will roll out to 15 towers by year’s end.
Higher data demands put more pressure on all existing networks, for which usage limits are one possible solution.
Another is expanding fiber-optic networks either directly to end users or closer to end users. In either case, customers are likely to face either with looming monthly price increases for unmetered service, or a need to keep a closer watch over their appetite for bytes.