What makes my internet connection cost more?

Question

What makes my internet connection cost more? can it be by watching youtube video?, watching stream on justin.tv? playing online games?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Who knows how the minds of the people in charge at these big ISPs work  ^^  It's a mystery to me.

Generally speaking though, a better plan costs more money.  A 1mbps/128kbps connection will cost you much less than a symmetrical 100mbps line.

Some ISPs will charge you based on usage.  For example, some ISPs will offer a plan that allows 250GB of data transferred per month. If you end up uploading 100GB and downloading 200GB, then you have exceeded your plan by 50GB. You will be charged extra for this. This hypothetical ISP may have other plans as well. Suppose they have a plan that allowed 1TB of data transferred per month. This plan, understandably, would cost more than the 250GB one.

There is also the difference between the services that an ISP offers. This is why T1 is so expensive.  Educational facilities and businesses will invest in T1 because the ISP guarantees nearly 100 percent uptime.

I have never heard of an ISP that charges more depending on what websites you visit though.  Usually, if an ISP blocks a website, there will not be ANY option to unblock it -- even if you pay more.  When an ISP blocks websites, it is usually not by their own volition. Generally, some government agency exerts so much pressure on them, that they have no choice but to comply.  Maybe what you were referring to were the different amounts of bandwidth that those sites and activities use up.  Certainly activities that use high amounts of bandwidth will bring you closer to your monthly limit than low bandwidth usage activities.

Some ISPs will charge you on a per GB basis.  On plans such as these, your bill will vary greatly from month to month, unless, of course, you have extremely habitual internet usage habits.  

Answer 2

Internet providers can not charge you more for going to any sites. However they can charge you more if you go over your monthly limit of internet usage, if you have a limit.