Zeugma Systems has done studies with IDC that indicate consumers almost universally view capping and metering with disregard. Today, Zeugma unveiled a new bandwidth capping and metering solution.
Noting the irony of this, Kevin Walsh, vice president of marketing at Zeugma, said that doesn’t mean the company is disregarding its own research. Rather, he said, it indicates service providers considering bandwidth capping and metering need to educate subscribers about what those solutions entail. That’s because the Zeugma/IDC research also indicates most customers didn’t know what a gigabyte is or how much bandwidth they consume, and voiced a dislike for the crude nature of bandwidth capping solutions that limit monthly consumption and typically charge per byte after that, he said.
SmartMeter, Zeugma’s new solution, allows service providers to build usage-based programs that are more flexible and customer friendly, continued Walsh. For example, it can allow heavy users to use more bandwidth during off-peak hours, benefiting both those users and the network operator.
With SmartMeter, a service provider also could sell a package that guarantees video quality, but caps other bandwidth usage, noted Walsh. Ninety-four percent of consumers surveyed by IDC last August said they saw value in broadband services that dynamically allocate premium bandwidth for certain types of traffic, such as video, VoIP, gaming, and telecommuter VPNs, and 26 percent would be willing to pay their broadband service provider extra for premium bandwidth services.
And, given the fact that most customers don’t know how much bandwidth they use, so could end up with unreasonably high bills if they continued to use service after exceeding their usage ceilings, SmartMeter also can enable service providers to reduce peak downstream bandwidth once a usage limit has been reached, rather than apply overage charges. The Zeugma solution also can help forecast usage and begin to take corrective action before the usage limit is reached.
According to Curtis Sherbo, Zeugma director of product management, “Broadband service providers are keenly interested in mechanisms that give them more control over how and when bandwidth is consumed on their networks. SmartMeter, a real-time application running within the ZSN, gives them that control.”
The SmartMeter software is available now. Contact Zeugma for pricing information.
