Verizon Ruling May Tax Dial-Up Customers

cellocgw writes "The Boston Globe is reporting that a court ruling in Verizon's favor could effectively allow phone companies to charge dial-up users on a per-minute basis." From the article: "About 68 percent of US internet users now connect via broadband, according to the latest data from Neilsen//NetRatings. That still leaves millions of users connecting the old way, in which modems in their home call local numbers over a telephone line to access the Internet. Precisely how many people were affected by the court ruling is unknown. Good said the number was in the thousands, but that Global NAPs did not have exact numbers and could not disclose the identities of all the companies that relied on Global NAPs for dial-up numbers."

Comments

Re:Why the hell shouldn't they pay by the minute?

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"If you're using a resource -- ie. the phone line -- then why shouldn't you pay the owner according to how much you use it?"

That depends on how it's advertised. 'Unlimited' is not the same as 'within reason'. If AT&T advertises a per-minute charge and THEN people sign up, then I agree, no reason why not.

DirectTV Tivos and Series 1 Tivo's affected also

[jucevic]

So am I now going to have to pay an additional amount every time my Tivo calls home? I have DSL already, but havn't taken the time to hack my DirectTV boxes. Is the Series 1 Tivo with a life time subscription that I gave my parrents now going to cost them a monthly fee?

Unnatural monopolies?

[SonicSpike]

Has anyone ever noticed that the majority of the current monopolies in the US are a result of the government?

Natural monopolies don't usually last very long because in a true free market, it is almost impossible to limit barriers to entry without governmental help.

The government should stay away from the market and allow the markets to run their course.

**NOT** 68%

[kopo]

The author of the article didn't understand his research. He said that according to Nielsen Ratings, 68% of US internet users connect with broadband. That's not true.
The Nielsen information for 2005 says that 68% of Americans use the internet - not necessarily through broadband. No statistics are given for broadband specifically, but they're definitely much lower. According to this article, US broadband usage will reach about 62% in 2010, and was 29% in 2004. I don't know about current stats, but it's probably near 35-40%.

Re:All right, all right... We get the message alre

[Reziac]

Thanks for the link... I still use a Wildcat BBS every day, and I contend that someday we'll see a return to the dialup BBS, when needed for email that's more secure from gov't snooping.

Which is why I was disturbed by this statement from the developer (I didn't see any link to this person on the site, maybe you can direct me):

"[will not be implemented]: OLR: include private email area in download packets. See also global wish for private mail areas."

Erm... without that, it lacks one of the most =fundamental= features of *any* messaging BBS -- private email [both local and internet] AND its inclusion in QWK packets. Even FIDO has private messaging echoes.

Otherwise, it looks like a good usable BBS interface (high praise from this Wildcat bigot :)

As to the nominal topic, if Verizon (and by extension, any provider of local phone service) can get away with what amounts to a "modem tax" -- that also removes their incentive to replace outdated and/or defective equipment that won't even do the industry-standard 50k connection, because the more time you're stuck online, the more money they make.

I've been arguing with Verizon for almost 5 years about their broken DMS that keeps my connection at 26.4k on a good day, and often much less -- meaning I spend 2 to 4 times as much time connected as I should have to, just to get my basic online stuff done. Why should I be penalised for Verizon's broken equipment??

Reminds a person of when AOL charged by the minute.....