FCC Approving Pay-As-You-Go Internet Plans

An anonymous reader writes "As details emerge about the Federal Communications Commission's controversial proposal for regulating Internet providers, a provision that would allow companies to bill customers for how much they surf the Web is drawing special scrutiny. Analysts say pay-as-you-go Internet access could put the brakes on the burgeoning online video industry, handing a victory to cable and satellite TV providers. Public interest groups say that trend will lead to a widening gap in Internet use in which the wealthiest would have the greatest access."

Comments

Duh! Get ready for it

[jmorris42]

Like every utility, customers are eventually going to be paying fees that relate to their usage of the resource. I know this is an alien concept for you younger slashdot users who only know the world your marxist prof has taught you about but consider this a learning experience. Deal with it.

When the usage levels between users can be more than 100 to 1 it can't be fair. Either you have the low usage customers subsidizing the net hogs or you price the service where the low usage customers simply cannot justify the service. Or the government meddles and makes things go from bad to worse.

Lets examine the rest of the utility world. Do we have flat rate electricity? No. Do we have flat rate water? No. We sometimes have flat rate sewer but more often it is tied to water consumption on the assumption that most of your water eventually goes down the drain.

We do tend to have flat rate cable because a) until recently it would have been hard to meter and b) it doesn't cost the cable company more if you watch more. On Demand changes that model and guess what, most on demand programming carries a charge. But the biggest pushback against paying for cable by usage is the advertisers wouldn't like people getting into the habit of switching off unless they were actually paying attention and it would end useless (often bundled) channels being able to collect fees per set when nobody was watching.

So yes, if you are using more of a scarce resource you should expect to pay more. This is econ 101, which I realize is a scarce skill here but ignorance of reality doesn't mean you can ignore it.