Charging for Internet Use
Published by Bob Foster
I read a couple of disturbing articles recently about the upcoming financial control of the Internet. Here is what Rupert Murdoch said recently:
“…you can confidently presume that we are leading the way in finding a model that maximizes revenue return for our shareholders… The current days of the Internet will soon be over.”
—Rupert Murdoch
It seems that big business made a mistake some time ago by not charging for Internet service the same way they charge for cell phone service. Now they are trying to put the toothpaste back into the tube. Will they succeed?
About 360,000 people recently downloaded an iPhone app for the Wall Street Journal. Murdoch said these users would soon be made to pay “handsomely” for accessing WSJ content. And that is just a start.
Recently, Time Warner announced plans for a new billing system that “meters” Internet usage and charges customers according to how much they download. In addition to subscription rates for services (see WSJ above), customers would pay for Internet usage “plans,” and would face stiff penalties if they exceeded their limit of Internet usage.
Not only is high speed Internet access out of reach of 40 percent of American homes, it is more costly and slower in the U.S. than in 21 other developed countries. Now, with the new pricing plans, like Times Warner, high speed Internet would be even further out of reach of 10′s of millions of Americans.
Is this how America is going to reassert itself as the innovation leader of the world. The Internet is an integral part of innovation, design, invention, developing, and building—and the Internet in the U.S. is already technologically behind most of the rest of the developed world.
Where does this leave America on the new world stage of information technology and innovation?
Comments
3 Responses to “Charging for Internet Use”
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As afar as charging for access to what should have been a subscription business in the first place, I don’t see that there’s any ethical issue with that – as long as people are aware of what’s taking place and the shift changes. In the early days of NYT online, you couldn’t access the full site (articles, etc.) unless you had a paper subscription or paid for an online subscription. IT wasn’t a lot, but if you wanted to unlock more than just the headlines and teasers, you paid a little and it was still worth it.
The Web has been the wild west for a long time and that’s both a good and bad thing as we all know. Just like any other source of media, the “junk” tends to get louder than the real content and people become desensitized to all of it, looking for some real substance in the core.
Now regarding service providers penalizing their customers by metering usage and starting to gouge people who are dependent on them alone for access, is right up there with what the telephone, cell and cable companies have been doing for decades. Oh wait – they ARE the service providers! Gee – I wonder where they got THAT business model?
It’s just yet another way that big corporations plan to put the small business owner OUT of business. Again. Time to look for another way to try to earn a living independently… if there is such a thing anymore.
Jeff – You are right, subscriptions for services and desired content is not only ethical, it is logical. Just because the Internet replaced the printing press does not mean the information is any less valuable. I am a little concerned though, by Murdoch’s comment that he would soon be making iPhone app subscribers for WSJ pay “handsomely” for the service. I wonder what that means.
The metering of usage is another story. We are already paying once for the service. I guess they want us to pay more according to how much we use it. It seems to me this will hurt the small business person, that relies on the Internet in their business, more than anyone else. Just one more roadblock for the small business person.
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