Broadband Speed Tiers: Should You Eliminate Them as a Usage Based Billing Strategy?

Broadband carriers spend a lot of effort emphasizing broadband speed tiers with their marketing efforts. There is a never ending speed race, with carriers trying to outdo each other with their broadband speed tiers. Is there a better approach? One that focuses on experience versus speed and bills subscribers based on usage, not speed? This was an interesting approach discussed on the Usage Based Billing Strategy panel at NTCA’s Fall Conference.

Instead of emphasizing speed, why not emphasize a better broadband experience that delivers all the applications customers want, and base their monthly billing on their amount of broadband usage. It’s a bit of a paradigm shift that’s broader than just about shifting to a usage based billing strategy. Most current usage based billing programs still emphasize and lead with speed when marketing the service. Metered broadband or usage caps are an afterthought, oftentimes based on the speed tier selected. In this new approach, the thought is, don’t lead with speed at all. In fact, maybe offer all customers the most speed you can offer, without even emphasizing it.