Internet service providers are now “testing” the implementation of caps on bandwidth usage and how to charge for “overages.” I feel this is another way of saying..you can go here but not here, there but not here, so on and so forth. They will eventually be dictating what websites are ok and which ones are not.
Lets use Netflix as an example. I watch a lot of movies(legally) on Netflix. I pay for their package and have access to online movies. I don’t track my bandwidth usage but let me just say that If you watch 5-6 full length movies, those GB will rack up purty quick. So what will they do? Make bandwidth from sites like this free but the bandwidth from other sites not? Or will it just be all data used? No! Time Warner Cable is probably not going to punish you for going to their affiliate sites, or using their email…or will they? I would like to think they won’t because if you use up your limit…they will still want you to be able to click on their affiliate sites and make money off of the clicks or views, or however they have their advertising set up. This is simply not fair.
Comcast is trying this as is AT&T. These are a little more reasonable, giving a 250GB limit then 1$ extra per GB. That is a lot of data and probably would not cause many problems, however, in the future when HD is readily available everywhere you go…depending on how many HD movies you watch that 250GB limit will become a much smaller amount in terms of Bandwidth use. A full length HD movie is around 8GB so it wouldn’t take many movies to take their toll on your bandwidth usage.
What might end up happening is that the biggest news sources will be free to view(no bandwidth charge) but all of the smaller localized news-sources that I go to on a daily basis, may not be free and take out of my bandwidth usage. Then..not only do the big businesses take over our everyday lives and put small businesses out of business, they will start effecting the world wide web. This could turn out to be another form of censorship by way of “To charge or not to Charge…That is the question.”
I believe we need to use our wallets as a protesting tool and tell them to shove it. These internet service providers are making money hand over fist and if their servers can’t handle the bandwidth, then they either need to build more or make the ones they have more sufficient.
Lets just be wary of it now that way we aren’t “all of a sudden” stuck with crappy internet, with very limited access, and then it will be harder for them to “implement it” if it’s not already in place, but if it is in place…good luck.
