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Quote by: Morgan_Freeman
It makes perfect sense to me that if you use more bandwidth, you should pay more for your Internet. Price rationing works in every other market, why not the Internet too?
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It works? I don't see it in this case.
It sounds more like a way to wring more money out of the consumer and the counter argument is that the telecom companies will freeze out small, unprofitable websites who can't pay the fees that the telecom monsters will surely charge.
My understanding is that when I pay my webhosts, they in turn pays the telecoms money for the hookup. Or, for regular users like AOL customers, they pay AOL which pays whoever owns the "pipes". Either way the carriers are paid, only now they want to get that camels nose under the tent and when they are ABLE to charge the individual websites or ISPs for different levels of access, subject to THEIR definition of what access is to be charged for and how little bandwidth will be allotted to the smaller outfits, they will charge every dime they can get.
It might sound good from the usual "free market is god" angle but there is that one little element the "free market" MUST have to be fair, and that is a competitor to go to if you don't like the service of one company. Since there is no second Internet you must have some kind of restraint on those who provide the connections. Obscene profits while gouging the consumer is already a fact in the case of the oil conglomerates and you have no argument that THIS monopolistic industry will behave any differently.
Remember, some sites like this and other discussion forums may make a buck but almost NONE of them started that way. How many such forums do you think would be around long enough to make a profit if the owners have to pay a hefty fee to start up?
BTW, the Wikipedia entry is disputed" so I wouldn't take it to be the definitive pro telecom argument.
HERE IS another take on this debate.