sf_geekboy
join:2003-10-15
San Francisco, CA
| Fixed Rate vs Pay per packet Since 1999, the question has been hanging of how long fixed price unmetered internet access would last.
The DotCom Boom and Bust resulted in the construction of massive overcapacity at SBC, Sprint, WorldCom, and other fiber network owners. This overcapacity delayed the discussion of the underlying question... what is the right pricing model for internet connectivity? Which model will encourage networks to keep capacity aligned with demand?
We have seen unbridled concentration through mergers and acquisitions in Telco's, Major ISP's, Cable Companies, and Content Providers... resulting in high consumer costs, slow deployment, and the delay of VOIP and other content delivery via Broadband. The issues have not been technical, but are driven by the desire for profit and concentrated control. (Japan and Scandenavia have seen markedly different outcomes in the cost and ubiquity of Broadband, Cellular Coverage, and etc.). Now these firms want to increase revenue to pay off the acquisition costs.
There are no surprises here. The same phenomenon has happened in Radio, TV, Periodicals, and Newspapers. The result is homogenized content delivery coast to coast. You can have all of the 31 flavors of pre chewed and digested content you can stomach, but no substantive local coverage or reporting, no diversity of content, no innovation, no free market, no sense of community involvement, even the Emergency Broadcast System doesn't work anymore (because you can't manage it at an unmanned radio station, see ClearChannel).
First the model was applied to the traditional means of distribution (of the 4th Estate), next it will be applied to Wired & Wireless Telecommunications (whether analog or packet based), and Internet Content of all kinds. The 4th Estate will not be permitted to morph into an Internet based model. The 4th Estate is slated for termination (castration was the first step). The means of communication are to be centralized, monetized, and controlled.
A different outcome would require the exclusion of Corporations from Government. It would require removing citizenship rights from Corporations. Otherwise, we are becoming an Banana Republic, with all that implies.
We are at war with Oceania. We have always been at war with Oceania. We will always be at war with Oceania... Until we are at war with someone else, with whom we have always been at war, and with whom we will always be at war.
Where is Oceania? It is in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nicaragua, Ruby Ridge, Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, Cuba, El Salvador, Kansas City, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Eqypt, Somalia, Hawaii, The Phillipines, North Korea, Moscow, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, East Berlin, Panama City, The Dominican Republic, Granada, Libya, Kosovo, and Haiti.
We are at war with Oceania. We have always been at war with Oceania. We will always be at war with Oceania...
War is profitable. War concentrates power. War is good for business, and the business of America is war... Therefore your access to information, not meaningless data, but contextual information, must be curtailed... must be monetized, and thereby curtailed. It is a small price to pay to live in a "free" society. The emphasis is on payment. |
Google will just turn on their darkfiber network