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AFAIK, no one has ever suggested that the phone company is entitled to a percentage of the money that a biz makes by using the phone. Instead, phone companies
by anamax 15y ago
AFAIK, no one has ever suggested that the phone company is entitled to a percentage of the money that a biz makes by using the phone. Instead, phone companies have to make do with biz charges that are the same for all biz and based solely on usage and installed equipment.
So, it's unclear why ISPs should be any different.
I've often hoped that Google would do a "day without google" for ISPs that felt that they were entitled to a cut. I think that ISPs would feel the pain long before Google and I'm optimistic enough to think that the lesson would not have to be taught many times.
- wmf 15y agoThis is the dark side of all the geeks saying "the Internet isn't like telephones" and "don't regulate the Internet" for so many years.
- seabee 15y ago> AFAIK, no one has ever suggested that the phone company is entitled to a percentage of the money that a biz makes by using the phone. Instead, phone companies have to make do with biz charges that are the same for all biz and based solely on usage and installed equipment. Look up 'premium-rate telephone numbers', in which the phone company and the line-leasing business enter a revenue sharing agreement. Now is it unclear why ISPs should be any different?
- anamax 15y ago'premium-rate telephone numbers', aka 976-porn and 1-900-more-porn are for biz that use the phone company as a billing/collections agent. This is pretty much the exact opposite - the ISPs are asking the biz to be their billing/collections agent. I have no problems with an ISP offering to do billing for internet companies that wanted it, or offering to give some of the money that they collect from their customers to internet-based biz for services rendered. However, that's the opposite of what they're proposing.