Dan, you've really addressed my point very well. And the equal access analogy was actually a better one than mine.
The spectre of metering has been looming in many areas for a long time, becoming more inevitable for more reasons, as time goes by. Through extension, your argument could be applied to many other dimensions of service, as well, as long as service providers continue to be governed by minimalist mentalities when choosing their transmission media.
[[This minimalism creates high levels of monetary value for relatively small amounts of bandwidth. But that's another thread, granted. But it's likely to come down to metering in some fashion, either by the minute, or per session, etc., especially if some optical or abundant wireless alternatives are not deployed, soon.]]
Now, here is an interesting question for everyone to consider:
Will future wireless operators who also provide in house ISP services, as well, be required to open their beams and rays to outsider ISPs too, when it comes to direct access system controls and first screen pops used for determining total hit counts? [That is, while those first page hits are still significant and relevant.]
I don't think that there will be any getting away from metering in the future, in bandwidth constrained environments, which only get more crowded with each passing hour and day.
Regards, Frank Coluccio |
