Some people use the Internet simply to check e-mail and look up phone numbers. Others are online all day, downloading big video and music files.
For years, both kinds of Web surfers have paid the same price for access. But now three of the country’s largest Internet service providers are threatening to clamp down on their most active subscribers by placing monthly limits on their online activity.
One of them, Time Warner Cable, began a trial of “Internet metering” in one Texas city early this month, asking customers to select a monthly plan and pay surcharges when they exceed their bandwidth limit. The idea is that people who use the network more heavily should pay more, the way they do for water, electricity, or, in many cases, cellphone minutes.
More than just music
Do you watch episodes of shows on the TV websites?
Use YouTube?
Are a subscriber to NetFlix and watch the movies they make available over the web?
Got rid of your home phone and have Vonage or some other VOIP service?
Buy MP3s online? (iTunes or Amazon)
It will really change how people look at the internet if the buffet is shut off and you have to consider the cost of everything you download.
Wrong
That is like charging local phone service. Some people may call only in emergencies and some stay on all day. They are just looking for another way to make money. When are the people of the US going to stand up and start fighting to keep money in their pockets and not the big companies. We do not realize the power we actually have. JUSt SAY NO! When companies raise rates, gas prices, …..stop buying! WE have the power. It is amazing to me that people do not band together to fight industry but will scream bloody murder if someone offends their morals or beliefs. Without getting a hold on the dollars in our pockets the other stuff will not matter because as the economy worsens so does crime and people’s all around good nature. Struggling to survive is painful. Let’s stop the money making machines now!
What are you talking about
The Telcos built the internet not some all knowing and all powerful Oz. Why should they not be able to enjoy the fruits of their labors? You certainly have power to find the best deal you can get, but beyond that it is a free market.
Big companies? Attaching the word big to anything seems to attach with it some stigma. What is wrong with a big company? I own stock -either directly or in mutual funds- in plenty of them. Unless you are not saving for your retirement you probably do too. There is nothing wrong with looking for more ways to make money, it makes these companies profitable and by extension their investors get more money.
If you are so concerned about having money taken from your pocket why are you not complaining about telecom related taxes, perhaps the universal service fee . Why should I have to pay so some library in east nowhere can have highspeed internet access? I lived with dial up for years, if the community considers it valuable they can pay for it why should I have to?
I have no choice about what IRS to use, but I certainly can choose which telecom provider to use, or even to use none at all, a choice the taxman does not allow.
N.B. I just changed my POTS line to message rate service. I can make 30 calls a month before I am charged ten cents per call. It saves me about ten bucks a month as I seldom make telephone calls from home.
Sure prices go up, and you have to make choices about what is important to you and how you spend your money, but doing away with the ‘big’ companies simply is insanity, look how well it is working for Hugo Chavez. Band together to fight industry, where do you want all these people to work when their company closes?
My good nature does not worsen with economic cycles, although crime may indeed increase. I’m not too worried as I am a frugal armed Capitalist.