Internet, Media Outfits Could Bid For Spectrum

Investor's Business Daily is running a speculative piece on the new media companies potential answer to AT&T's threat to start charging extortion fees to allow bandwidth-hungry content through their pipes. The answer: create a wireless broadband network by purchasing spectrum about to go on sale. The telcos already charge internet subscription fees to customers connecting to the internet -- in some regions, offering tiered prices: the faster you go, the more you pay. However, they've noticed that the new media companies are making a killing with the traffic running across their network, and want a piece of the action. Never you mind that they've done nothing to create those customers, and are already being compensated for the use of their networks. If billions are to be made, it shouldn't go just to those creating those innovative services. What the telcos are suggesting is the introduction of speed bumps to slow you down, then express lanes for those who pay extra. Guess what? Those costs will be transferred straight to the customers.

North America is already falling behind Asia and Europe in adoption and innovative services. This plan of the telcos would relegate the internet in North America back to the early 1990s.

Found via the Networking Pipeline blog.