Jeff, thanks for this excellent post-- 58301.
>>>This touches on the current physical paradigm shift in telephony.<<<
>>>Now - here is the shift - Telephone is now sent as digital data, well, at least after it passes through the central office. Most line connections to the central office either still use old equipment or new equipment that mimics the old model. But it's pretty clear to me that there will be a massive shift over the next ten years to replace all this with straight data line equipment. The introduction of ADSL service is the leading edge of the shift. The reason that Nortel just bought Bay Networks is just to accelerate their ability to build an all data line telephone network.<<<
>>>Each of us should be constantly connected and not charged for the
connection. Instead you should be charged for the data transfers you do. This makes the phone line on par with other utility services such as gas or electric. Your data line should equally provide voice, internet, and perhaps video.<<<
I agree totally, it'll be a "you use the juice, you pay the man" situation. Bandwidth will be billed exactly the same way as the electric utility form of billing. My guess is by the "Geeg".
The cable company gives ONE gigabyte of bandwidth per month(which they say is massive). However, it is very easy to download 200-300 megabytes in an afternoon with a cable modem. At this time, they don't charge extra for using a few extra gigabytes a month. It's only a matter of time before they go to a metered charge system.
Jeff, My question is: Do you think that any company(telco. or cableco.) will go to a metered system before the year 2000? Also, who do you think will be the first to lead the way? It's a gutsy move to be the first, and maybe a public relations nightmare. |
