June 13, 2008
Net Neutrality and How the ISP’s May Destroy the Internet
Here’s a bit of info that alarms the heck out of me. Apparently, the major Internet services providers around the globe are planning on charging consumers extra for visiting websites outside their ’subscription Internet area’. In other words, we’ll all have to pay a set fee like we do now but we’ll only be able to access big-name websites. If we want to go to any other website (like the millions upon millions of smaller, and often more useful website) we’ll have to pay more.
This will most likely have a devastating effect on the Internet as whole since it is mainly made up of the smaller, less commercialized websites. Now people will have a disincentive to visit these smaller sites in the form of higher prices. These sites’ visitors will substantially decrease, which will take away the motivation for people to even bother creating and maintaining websites, causing the whole Internet to come tumbling down.
Supposedly, insider information confirms this and it is predicted to happen by 2012. In fact, Time Magazine will be publishing a story on this very soon.
Please see http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality2 to learn more and consider joining in on attempting to stop this.
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Comments on Net Neutrality and How the ISP’s May Destroy the Internet »
Greg @ 1:31 pm
Hi,
Pretty interesting video. A little one sides, I think.
First off, Time is hardly a reliable or objective source, though if the author actually has confirmed statements then there may be something there.
Second, let’s see a breakdown of current costs and access to the proposed costs and access. How much change are we really looking at?
Third, let’s keep the Gov out of it, or we’ll see an end result being worse than anything the ISPs might do. Regardless of how much we might hate the big corporations they provide services at a cost and efficiency far superior to what any Gov entity might be able to accomplish. Points to the guys on the video for not recommending a Gov solution.
Given the number of people I’ve heard whining about their internet costs (which is hardly free to provide) it seems to me that some form of tiered model might not be a bad idea. I want to know exactly what the real ISP plan is.
Lastly, companies, even really big ones, do respond to public pressure. Especially if there’s competition. I think we just need to have all of our facts together before deciding what pressure to apply.
Why do these guys think the Internet is free? The internet is not a free space. It’s expensive to provide and maintain and people do not have a *right* to access.
This would have been a much better video if they’d had some remarks from the ISP side. Hopefully the article will, and hopefully it won’t belittle the ISP side.
ISPs have an obligation to make a profit. If they price their access too high then they will lose market share. Too low and they don’t make enough and certain problems occur. There is competition which will provide a price pressure. Maybe not as much as we’d like, but it’s a pretty expensive biz to get into.
So hopefully we’ll be able to get some more objective info about what’s going on here.
note: I’m not saying the ISP plan is the best thing since cookies, I’m saying I’m a skeptic and I want more objective info.
Thanks.