I don’t disagree, but it presents some marketing and tech support issues dealing with customers.
If 4K streaming requires 25M as Netflix says, that’s around 15 times what SD requires and 6 times what HD (720p) requires. I don’t think customers think of it that way, and they certainly don’t want to pay 6 or 15 times as much, more like 1.5X or 2X if anything. Add this to the trend of having 2, 3, 5 or more streams going at once and in their head it’s a binary thing, can I stream on your service or can’t I? As someone posted the other day, 6M does not mean 6M per device. I already get a fair amount of calls from people either watching Netflix while others in the house are watching Youtube, or they are watching streams on their Apple TV or via Amazon or Hulu that take more bandwidth than Netflix. In some cases I think those services are optimized for download and watch later rather than live streaming. You’d think people would observe Netflix works but Vudu doesn’t, and blame it on the streaming service. But everything these days is “my Internet is slow”. I had someone yesterday who had managed to both turn off WiFi on their router and unplug the Internet cable, but the reported problem was “my Internet is slow”. Add in the binary choice “can I stream or can’t I”, and I think we need some really good talking points and phone support scripts to explain to people why they need to upgrade to a higher more expensive plan, rather than saying I used to be able to stream Netflix SD, now I can’t stream 4K, you need to send someone out to fix my Internet connection, it doesn’t work like it used to, I’m not getting what I’m paying for. As far as pricing, my rule of thumb is price goes up as the square root of bandwidth, so 2X speed is around 1.4X price. But that would make 15X speed around 4X price, which I think is fair, but customers will think is outrageous. From their perspective, 4K is incrementally better looking than SD, plus everyone knows additional bandwidth costs ISPs next to nothing. This is gonna take some slick marketing. From: Rory Conaway via Af Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2014 8:59 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Well there goes all our bandwidth. Amazonstreaming4Know. I’m looking at this as the reason to raise prices. I don’t see a downside but I don’t have towers. Rory From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chuck McCown via Af Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2014 7:24 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Well there goes all our bandwidth. Amazonstreaming4Know. You boys are probably still slapping the side of the TV to get the picture to straighten up, right? From: CBB - Jay Fuller via Af Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2014 2:45 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Well there goes all our bandwidth. Amazonstreaming4Know. i assume you no one here in alabama (except us techies) knows what 4ktv is. i honestly don't even... ----- Original Message ----- From: Ryan Ghering via Af To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2014 9:36 AM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Well there goes all our bandwidth. Amazon streaming4Know. It's especially worrisome with Newegg and Tiger selling cheap off brand 4K's under 500 bucks. And Roku is starting a big sale this week. I've already had calls this morning if customers current bandwidth will stream 4k. NOPE sorry.. Then I tell them what package we do offer that will support it and they freek out. Like I'm gona give bandwidth away for free. GEEZ On Wed, Dec 10, 2014 at 8:30 AM, That One Guy via Af <[email protected]> wrote: This is going to make for an ugly christmas season. If we had customer service who was firm it wouldnt be an issue "we dont offer that speed currently" but instead, the customers on 900 will be the ones who get the tv, and the subscription and call in, and CS will keep saying, well isnt there anything we can do for this guy in the middle of the forrest with the 300 foot cable run? and Ill have to go home and punch one of my children, probably the boy, Im kind of afraid of the girl. On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 10:51 PM, Ken Hohhof via Af <[email protected]> wrote: A quick Google search comes up with Audials and Playlater. It does not appear to be rocket science. From: Jason McKemie via Af Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2014 10:18 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Well there goes all our bandwidth. Amazon streaming 4Know. I'd think if someone could figure out a way to get the movies from RAM, they could also figure out a way to capture them from a stream. On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 8:59 PM, Travis Johnson via Af <[email protected]> wrote: Because then people could "save" the movies in RAM, and someone would figure out a way to be able to download them and put them on the Internet for free. It's a licensing issue... that's why "streaming" is OK. Travis On 12/9/2014 7:00 PM, Bill Prince via Af wrote: That 187MB translates to only about 11.25 GB per hour. Why not stick in a 32GB memory and be done? That would be almost 3 hours of buffer. --bp<part {dash} 15 {at} SkylineBroadbandService {dot} com> On 12/9/2014 4:50 PM, Travis Johnson via Af wrote: It's really too bad that the devices that support all these streaming services can't have a larger buffer. I'm sure it's part of their licensing deals, but if they could buffer 60 seconds of stream (at any quality), they would have much fewer support calls for streaming issues, etc. Using Netflix's 25Mbps for 4k, that works out to 187.5MB of storage space. At current RAM prices, you can buy a 256MB module for $15 full retail... so places like Samsung can probably buy them in quantity for less than $2. Seems like it would be worth it to pay an extra $10 for a TV/DVD/PS4/Wii-U device that could handle 60 seconds of video. Travis On 12/9/2014 5:34 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: That’s pretty cool. You can do 4k direct from Youtube. Several of the ones I’ve tested are sustained around 20-30Mbps. But on my network it tends to burst to 90Mbps then sit around for a while, then burst back to 90Mbps. I think the 4k will require a lot of optimizations before it works on the built in TV’s. From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jerry Richardson via Af Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2014 5:12 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Well there goes all our bandwidth. Amazon streaming 4K now. Lovely From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ryan Ghering via Af Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2014 3:38 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [AFMUG] Well there goes all our bandwidth. Amazon streaming 4K now. http://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-starts-4k-uhd-streams/ -- Ryan Ghering Network Operations - Plains.Net Office: 970-848-0475 - Cell: 970-630-1879 -- All parts should go together without forcing. You must remember that the parts you are reassembling were disassembled by you. Therefore, if you can't get them together again, there must be a reason. By all means, do not use a hammer. -- IBM maintenance manual, 1925 -- Ryan Ghering Network Operations - Plains.Net Office: 970-848-0475 - Cell: 970-630-1879
