Leelanau Whippersnapper

I’ll admit that I’m pretty much a tech-geek but in the same breath I’m nowhere close to a true nerd!  Anyhow, this is an issue that is of great concern to me and it should be to you as well.  When the internet was young back in the early 90’s, AOL was the primer internet service provider.  They charged BY THE HOUR for internet access on their networks for speeds up to 28.8kbs.  This was a great model for making HUGE profits and ripping consumers off.  Since AOL was the service to have, I signed up and I recall my first bill of $250 for a MONTH of internet access and I nearly got rid of the computer all together.  After that, I did all my internet browsing at GVSU using their high speed connection for free in the computer lab until AOL finally went to an “all you can eat” program for a low monthly fee.  That price structure became the norm in the internet access world, until today.

Time Warner has announced that they will now be testing “metered bandwidth” pricing schemes in a few markets.  They will put a cap on the bandwidth you can consume per month and you’ll be charged if you go over that amount.  Bandwidth for those of you reading who don’t know is the amount of data transfered upstream and downstream (uploads and downloads) between your computer and your internet service provider.  If you don’t use your internet connection for anything but email and basic web page browsing, these new caps won’t mean anything to you and they really wont’ affect you.  HOWEVER, if you are geek like me and you get all your music, video, and on occasion your movies via the internet this is cause for significant concern.  I installed a bandwidth meter on my computer about 3 months ago when I caught wind of the potential for providers to move in this direction.  I wanted to know what my average consumption was per month so when monthly plans are eventually introduced, I could select the one that best suits my needs and so I could start to gauge how much internet access would cost me in the future.  Keep in mind that becuase I’m an early adopter, I’ve paid up to $130 a month for broadband access in the past, and I would think that in some markets today, people are still paying that much a month.  I do not however think that broadband should be costing ANYONE anywhere more than $50 a month.  I consume about 30GB of bandwidth a month, more downloads than uploads but still, that is considerably higher than most people I know might use.  That bandwidth consists of web browsing, email, streaming music, streaming TV and video, and a movie or two via my access to OneBox at Amazon.com using my TiVO set top box.  According to this article, it is only 10GB short of the cap on their best plan of 40GB per month and that plan is more than I’m paying now.

There is somewhat of a war going on right now in the tech world.  On the one side you have the big monopolies (Time Warner, Comcast, Charter, RIAA), on the other side you have the open access activists (of which I am one).  I strongly believe that access to the internet should be treated as a utility with the same quality, speed, and unrestricted access offered to EVERYONE regardless of location (like electricity).  I am a very strong opponent of censorship campaigns pertaining to content on the internet, and I have real problems with forced advertising although I support some advertising methods as legitimate ways to reduce the end cost to consumers.  I DO in fact understand that it costs money to provide internet access.  I’m not an idiot.  In most cases however I’ll pay more for something to get rid of advertising.  On the flip side are these big companies who want to control how we access information on the internet and how we acquire digital media.  They loose money when I watch TV online becuase I am subjected to different advertisers who may or may not be subsidizing my viewing to my particular service provider.  It’s ALL about the money (Again, I’m in sales so I know what that means however, there are other models out there for making money).

So, to conclude this chapter, it’s generally in your best interest to use service providers that do not put restrictions on bandwidth and if it’s introduced if you have the option, you should switch providers.  Increasingly your media will come from the internet in various forms and that media will consume bandwidth at higher and higher levels as everything moves into the HD world.  Cable companies want you to watch movies on THEIR cable services, they don’t want you to download them becuase when you do that they miss out on a critical revenue stream.  Too bad.  I don’t like monopolies and while I generally don’t like government intervention either, this is one area where our government must act to retain low cost access to information and media via the internet.