Iplayer Broadband - Using too much bandwidth?

Iplayer could be described as the best thing since sliced bread by those of us who love to watch it. Iplayer usage has sky rocketed since it was first implimented with recent estimates showing that Iplayer could account for 7% of peak broadband usage. What is less well know is the fact that Iplayer is causing ISPs some problems. This is due to the large amount of data is transfered by the service and it is costing ISPs a lot more money to transfer the data. Part of the reason is that a lot of ISPs don't have formal caps on their broadband packages ("unlimited") so users are now downloading a lot more content than they would in the past which pushes up prices.

Anthony Rose, the BBC's controller for vision and online media has suggested that ISPs could charge users an additional fee to access iPlayer. This fee could range from £10 to £20 a month depending on the quality of the streaming media and is it would be an additional cost on top of both your broadband connection costs and licence fee (assuming you have standard TV too).

This has caused many complaints from consumers regarding the issue. In theory if you have a broadband connection with a capped limit, of say 40Gb, you should be allowed to use that limit on any internet content. Be that browsing static web pages, downloading photos via email or more bandwidth heavy tasks such as using the BBC's Iplayer.

This new pricing scheme would no doubt foster a bond between the BBC and many ISPs who have complained about Iplayer being irresponsible. It would however change the way that we pay for our broadband, from buying the broadband, rather than access to the content.

David Macfarlane, Internet Consultant, Future in Sites Ltd.