Charging for Internet Use
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?
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