I have to agree with you on this. If we are going to invoke the village green argument that everyone is attempting to take more than their share we should regulate this by making the consumer foot the bill. The one objection that I can readily see to this argument; however, is that some consumers might not be able to afford any real amount of bandwidth units. Right now you can purchase low cost plans for around 12.95 a month, within reach of quite a few low income families. If you decide to start charging by the Kb, Mb, etc. they would be put at an unfair disadvantage against more privileged households. This does not bode well in many aspects. Also small businesses might not be able to foot the bill to provide online services, e.g. online shopping, due to an increase in the cost of business. Also one might argue how to charge in such a situation, only download size, what about upload size. Can you imagine the overhead of running a hosting service for a CRM web application? In the end I believe that if the company is going to advertise a specific amount of bandwidth that is what should be attainable at said specific price point. If you are going to be an ISP, you have to be ready to dish out the good and handle the bad. I am personally for net neutrality, I do not believe any selfish business (and all businesses in the standard sense are as the prime goal is profit) should be in control of the internet "village green".
mdavidson83
Slashdot Mirror
I have to agree with you on this. If we are going to invoke the village green argument that everyone is attempting to take more than their share we should regulate this by making the consumer foot the bill. The one objection that I can readily see to this argument; however, is that some consumers might not be able to afford any real amount of bandwidth units. Right now you can purchase low cost plans for around 12.95 a month, within reach of quite a few low income families. If you decide to start charging by the Kb, Mb, etc. they would be put at an unfair disadvantage against more privileged households. This does not bode well in many aspects. Also small businesses might not be able to foot the bill to provide online services, e.g. online shopping, due to an increase in the cost of business. Also one might argue how to charge in such a situation, only download size, what about upload size. Can you imagine the overhead of running a hosting service for a CRM web application? In the end I believe that if the company is going to advertise a specific amount of bandwidth that is what should be attainable at said specific price point. If you are going to be an ISP, you have to be ready to dish out the good and handle the bad. I am personally for net neutrality, I do not believe any selfish business (and all businesses in the standard sense are as the prime goal is profit) should be in control of the internet "village green". mdavidson83