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Look Forward To Per-Service, Per-Page Fees
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Wired: "[Two] companies, Allot Communications and Openet — suppliers to large wireless companies including AT&T and Verizon — showed off a new product in a web seminar Tuesday, which included a PowerPoint presentation (1.5-MB .pdf) that was sent to Wired by a trusted source. The idea? Make it possible for your wireless provider to monitor everything you do online and charge you extra for using Facebook, Skype or Netflix. For instance, in the seventh slide of the above PowerPoint, a Vodafone user would be charged two cents per MB for using Facebook, three euros a month to use Skype and $0.50 monthly for a speed-limited version of YouTube."
This works in the same way people like to have the government tax things to discourage usage, like taxing oil and giving breaks to solar
Except that solar, which has far fewer users than gasoline, is still too expensive and now I'm angry that I have to pay more at the gas pump. I have to drive to work each day, so gas taxes hit me hard right now and I don't own a mansion covered in solar panels like Al Gore does. Has anyone else noticed that "green" subsidies for electric cars and solar panels seem primarily to benefit those who can afford to pay full price anyway? Why should ordinary working folks pay more at the gas pump so that hybrid limousine liberals can have their "green" fetishes satisfied at a subsidized rate?