What if the telcos rolled out tiered Internet service?

Cory Doctorow 12:46 pm Sun Feb 12, 2006

A great absurdist dialog between a father and son in 2019 shows what the outcome could be if the phone companies and big ISPs are successful in deploying "guaranteed delivery" tiered network services where you have to pay extra to be sure that your site, email, or service will reach all the people who want to get it:

Dad: They made a lot of money but I guess it was not enough. They wanted the big websites like Google, Amazon, eBay, MSN etc. to pay them and not use their network for free.

Son: That’s so bad of Google to not pay them. I have lost all respect for Sergey and Larry. How can they expect a free ride? So convenient for them to make all that Ad dollars while running their algorithm from public libraries?

Dad: Public Libraries?? What are you talking about? They had their own offices and datacenters.

Son: But you said they used the internet for free. How can they provide content without paying for the bandwidth?

Dad: Oh! They did.

Son: Wait. I’m all confused here. We paid for our end of the bandwidth and the websites paid at their end. So who is getting a free ride here?

Dad: I haven’t figured that out yet.

(via Isen)

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