So yes, perhaps later I will have more details or a clearer idea of what form this will take but for now here is a gem I came across while trolling the interwebs to start things off. In the typical techy pandering style, the computerworld main title is Time Warner Drops Metering Plan. YAY! I think we can all agree this is great. There is anything that brings a warmer, fuzzier feeling to a techie than knowing there will not be a proverbial kitten blocking their intertubes (accept perhaps to laugh at another goof up by the RIAA but that is another story).
Anyways, the long and short of it is that not only were the four cities in an uproar over being charged $1 per gigabit of bandwidth after a certain (lame) cap, but apparently politicians don't like telephone long distance er... I mean internet bills either. So now the CEO of TW Glenn Britt has said that their "consumption based" model for pricing would be shelved after less than two weeks of service. Apparently "public outcry" and a particularly vocal US Senator calling his private cell caused a change of heart? Ah... sometimes one can get just the smallest taste of what it must be like to be Steve Jobs and having the record labels falling over themselves at your feet when you read something like this. Though to give TW some credit, who WOULDN'T have thought charging people more for internet during a recession was a good idea?
But really, asside from the bandwagon of "poke the funny little CEOs" what really got my attention with this article was its subheading, User win this time, broadband service pricing inevitable. Excuse me? Can you run that by me one more time please? I almost thought I heard some (Matt Hamblin) who is payed to write blogs for a top web publication make a WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) over a topic that will like take at least 5 years and likely numerous "fact finding teams" of the government poking around to resolve. While we are at WAGs, just remember, the world ends in 2012 folks, duck, cover, bend-over; whatever makes you feel better. ;) My WAG is only out 4 years and has possibly more evidence than Matts. Well if our writing hero (I can cast myself however I like thank you very much) can clearly support his hunch, what does Mr. Hamblin have to show?
I kid you not but his source for this stunning revelation is "observers". These apparently well informed individuals are ready to tell us that, as the average troglodyte er user starts using bittorrent er... i mean iTunes to download movies that the interwebs efficiency will be ruined (as us horrible power users are doing {15% of users}**) to quote:
"Carriers complain that to keep up with this growing demand, they have to enlarge their networks quickly, and deploy more efficient technologies that increase capacity. It seems inevitable to all parties that Internet access will cost more"
Um.... please forgive me for being possibly childish here, but wtf mate? If we went back oh... 4-5 years and showed someone the 100 billion or whatever itunes songs downloaded annually or the crazy level of java and flash on sites would they say "Good gosh, how do you afford your Internet, theres so much data it must be real darn expensive". From 2-meg hard drives to 2 terrabyte drives, technology has a way of progressing with demand and somehow staying affordable. If the whining telecoms and their spokesman... I mean blogger Matt are to be believed, that Tb drive should be costing 100,000 times more than our trusty 2-meg model. What i don't understand is that this is not a new phenomenon, its been happening for almost 30 years now. Where does this idea that more network traffic equals higher costs?
Unlike the harddrive mentioned, the majority of what we pay telecos is supposed to be directed at improving infrastructure, it costs literal cents per gig of traffic for the Man to give us internet, where is the rest of the money going? The man? The mans stakeholders bottom line?
It makes as much sense as saying that Album you just bought really isn't yours.... but again, i won't go there. It is almost sleepy time for me (I'm an old man now, 23, who goes to bed around 9ish usually) and i bet i am getting long-winded/incoherent. Now that we have had a laugh at a truly horrendous article we will see where this blog goes from here. Please leave feedback and tell me what needs improving (yes if you feel deleting it from the server and finding the laptop Iwrote it on and beating it to death with a base-ball bat while crazy rap music plays (see office space) that is still considered an improvement suggestion).
Thanks and goodnight,
Matrim
**On another note, i am streaming Pandora as i write this, my main computer is downloading (legally from itunes) a movie for my wife and having my emails checked realtime and have a chat client open, gee i wish i had a comcast meeter on my dashboard counting down till when i was out of Kb ;)...... Incidentally, thinking of the carbon footprint i am creating right now makes my buttocks tingle but that is another story...
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