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North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill]
On Fri, 11 Nov 2005, Christopher L. Morrow wrote: > Actually, thinking about this, does a bit cost more when delivered from > china or 'mci' (pick any domestic isp)? I'm asking not about the total > cost, but say the cost from (to pick on sbc) SBC's front door to the > consumer's front door ? Does a bit from Google (not yahoo since they have > a 'relationship' with SBC) cost more than one from playboy.com ? (again, > from sbc front door to consumer front door) > > If the cost is the same front door to front door, then why would a > customer willingly pay more for playboy over google? (or the other way > around) > > This is an interesting topic :) Are you suggesting a return to cost-based regulation? At one time airline prices were regulated based on air mile distance. MCI Friends & Family charged different rates for phone calls depending whether the person you called was also a MCI customer. Was MCI illegally interfering with people calling AT&T customers by charging a different rate? Level 3 charges different rates for "on-net" versus "off-net" traffic. Is Level 3 illegally interfering with people accessing content on other ISPs buy charging more? Many cell phone companies offer "free" minutes when you call other people in your plan. Is Verizon illegally interfering with other cell phone companies by charging more? Or in each of this cases, are they actually charging some people less? How do you decide what is a "discount" or a "surcharge"? Not everyone may want to pay for 100Mbps Internet service in their home, but they may want to pay less for only 10Mbps Internet and also watch a bunch of HDTV. HDTV may be advertiser supported, and the advertiser may be willing to subsidize a portion of the bandwidth so the consumer doesn't have to pay as much. Or do we want the government to force consumers to buy more than they want?
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