Pay for priority on the Internet?
Traditional telephone service is now such a low-margin business that the successors to the old Ma Bell are looking to the Internet for their profits. PC World has an article on one possible development with some dubious implications:
A number of telephone companies such as SBC/AT&T, Verizon and others have begun talking about offering a new prioritization service to Internet businesses. The general concept is simple: Pay the ISP some extra money, and the data packets to and from your Web site get priority.
Personally, I hope that the Internet conduits remain free from this type of priority control. If some company wants a faster Internet connection, let it pay for more bandwidth, not for special treatment. Establishing fees based on content or the identity of the user would open a can of worms.
The Nation goes further, saying
The nation’s largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.
The Nation has a political axe to grind and is probably a little overboard but nonetheless it is possible that some sort of political action may be necessary to maintain the current practice of what is known as “Net Neutrality”, i.e. treating all content the same.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.