Pay-per-use bandwidth? Not without some ground rules
Hi.
I'm Molly Wood from CNET.com here with the Molly Rant in One Minute.
This week, Verizon announced an end to it's grandfathered unlimited data plans.
Also, this week it turned out ComCast might be prioritizing it's expendity streaming app over competitors like Netflix on the open internet while also imposing crazy low bands with caps on it's customers.
That comes when thousands of customers paid too much for slow internet access, have their data throttled for using too much of it or just generally found that internet access was a slowly disappearing resource.
The days of unlimited bandwidth are sadly over.
It's bummer but I'm a realist.
I understand that bandwidth is not an unlimited resource, much like electricity or water.
So I'll make a deal with the companies that provide that bandwidth.
I'll pay for bandwidth like electricity or water but in exchange, no price gouging from you, no blatant violations of net neutrality, no data cast that are so low that I ration my app usage like it's sugared during World War II and absolutely no turning off my internet access if I use too much.
If you play by rules that are fair to both businesses and customers, then we will pay per use.
The information economy will thrive and everyone will win.
If not, expect giant screaming hissy pits and government regulations for years to come.
Read the rest of this rant over at news.com/mollyrant and thanks for watching.
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