Death of Free Internet is Imminent

[rhonda15]

In the last 15 years or so, as a society we have had access to more information than ever before in modern history because of the Internet. There are approximately 1 billion Internet users in the world and any one of these users can theoretically communicate in real time with any other on the planet.

The Internet has been the greatest technological achievement of the 20th century by far, and has been recognized as such by the global community. The free transfer of information, uncensored, unlimited and untainted, still seems to be a dream when you think about it. Whatever field that is mentioned- education, commerce, government, news, entertainment, politics and countless other areas- have been radically affected by the introduction of the Internet.

And mostly, it's good news, except when poor judgements are made and people are taken advantage of. Scrutiny and oversight are needed, especially where children are involved. However, when there are potential profits open to a corporation, the needs of society don't count.

Take the recent case in Canada with the behemoths, Telus and Rogers rolling out a charge for text messaging without any warning to the public. It was an arrogant and risky move for the telecommunications giants because it backfired. People actually used Internet technology to deliver a loud and clear message to these companies and that was to scrap the extra charge. The people used the power of the Internet against the big boys and the little guys won.

However, the issue of text messaging is just a tiny blip on the radar screens of Telus and another company, Bell Canada, the two largest Internet Service Providers (ISP'S) in Canada. Our country is being used as a test case to drastically change the delivery of Internet service forever. The change will be so radical that it has the potential to send us back to the horse and buggy days of information sharing and access.

http://realitycheck.typepad.com/

http://digg.com/tech_news/Death_of_Free ... _Test_Case

[seabhcan]

I'm not sure what to make of this. Presumably, this "deal" on the interent will have some advantages to the customer? Why would anyone switch to it?

[fionnmccool]

We already pay for internet when we pay for our cable/internet/ISP package . I find that Canadian proposal ludicrous. If they get away with this , then due to similar human stupidity I fully expect a global tax on sexual relations

[seabhcan]

We already pay for internet when we pay for our cable/internet/ISP package . I find that Canadian proposal ludicrous. If they get away with this , then due to similar human stupidity I fully expect a global tax on sexual relations

There must be another side to this. Maybe they are going to offer free internet access to the selected sites and billing after that. That kind of package would suit a lot of people.

[KingKane]

The net isn't free you idiot, it costs money to create and maintain the infrastructure and all those evil proposals you're talking about are in outline at least talking about given priority on the pipe to content that is time sensitive like video.

[fionnmccool]

We already pay for internet when we pay for our cable/internet/ISP package . I find that Canadian proposal ludicrous. If they get away with this , then due to similar human stupidity I fully expect a global tax on sexual relations

There must be another side to this. Maybe they are going to offer free internet access to the selected sites and billing after that. That kind of package would suit a lot of people.

So would this mean that free of charge someone could just plug their computer in and read carefully selected sites which conform to certain propaganda standards ?
Sounds a bit like China if you ask me. This would also mean the end of blogging and the end of personal websites etc. The end of web browsing. I would have never found this site if I had been forced to pay to view it first.

[seabhcan]

We already pay for internet when we pay for our cable/internet/ISP package . I find that Canadian proposal ludicrous. If they get away with this , then due to similar human stupidity I fully expect a global tax on sexual relations

There must be another side to this. Maybe they are going to offer free internet access to the selected sites and billing after that. That kind of package would suit a lot of people.

So would this mean that free of charge someone could just plug their computer in and read carefully selected sites which conform to certain propaganda standards ?
Sounds a bit like China if you ask me. This would also mean the end of blogging and the end of personal websites etc. The end of web browsing. I would have never found this site if I had been forced to pay to view it first.

It would mean the end of those things if everyone signed up to this package, but that is never going to happen.

I'm not promoting this thing, I just feel that this story isn't explaining what these companies are offering.

[rhonda15]

The net isn't free you idiot

I know you feel you're some kind of bigshot around here being a moderator and "senior politico", but could you please tone down the abuse.
Way to go getting new people to post here as if this place isn't intimidating enough.
Some people on this site seem to want to make politics.ie an unpleasant experience. Shame

[taylorwemyss]

This is going to backfire because people will find ways to still to use the internet for what they want to see.

[stewiegriffin]

The net isn't free you idiot

I know you feel you're some kind of bigshot around here being a moderator and "senior politico", but could you please tone down the abuse.
Way to go getting new people to post here as if this place isn't intimidating enough.
Some people on this site seem to want to make politics.ie an unpleasant experience. Shame

Seconded ,bout time someone said it , fair play to ya