Author Archives: HannahHawthorn

If ISPs Are Going to Charge for Bandwidth, Why Not Charge End Users?

Mother Jones

I want to toss out an idea about the latest battle over net neutrality. It’s not an original idea by a long way, but for some reason it doesn’t seem to be part of the current discussion, and I’m curious if anyone knows why this is.

Here’s the problem: ISPs like Comcast and Time Warner want to charge additional fees to companies like Netflix and Google that use a lot of bandwidth. On the surface, this is totally reasonable. If you use more of something, you have to pay more. Every market on the planet works this way.

But why on earth would you charge content providers? It’s hellishly complex and opens the door to onerous levels of regulation; it requires lots of lengthy and contentious negotiations; and, as net neutrality advocates point out, it runs the risk of creating unfair discrimination against companies that are too small to pay or that ISPs just don’t like for one reason or another. Besides, it’s not as if content companies just randomly dump lots of bits on the internet. They do it only when an end user requests those bits by calling up a website or streaming a movie or downloading a file.

The obvious solution here is also an old one: since end users are the ones requesting the bits, charge them for bandwidth. This is far simpler than negotiating private agreements with hundreds or thousands of content providers, and it’s fairer too. If you watch a lot of Netflix shows, you’re going to need a plan that provides both the bandwidth and the quality of service you need. That’s going to cost more than a plan designed for people who just browse a few sites each day or send a bit of email, but why shouldn’t it? If you’re buying more bits, you should pay for more bits. Everyone with a cell phone data plan understands this.

Now, there’s one obvious answer to why ISPs don’t do this: customers hate it. We end up paying for all this bandwidth anyway, since the ISP’s fees eventually get passed along to us (or to advertisers or whoever foots the ultimate bill), but apparently we all enjoy the fiction that we can use infinite bandwidth for one flat rate. This, of course, is part of a grand American tradition of hiding costs—other examples include banking fees, tax expenditures, loyalty cards, free parking, subsidized cell phones, CAFE standards, and so forth—so that end users don’t have to face up to the actual cost of the stuff we buy. The end result, of course, is lots of inefficiency and, in most cases, higher costs than if we just paid up front in the first place.

Anyway, that’s my question. There’s already a perfectly good, perfectly simple way for ISPs to recover the cost of providing lots of bandwidth: just charge the customers who use it. Existing peering and transit arrangements wouldn’t be affected, and there would be no net neutrality implications. So why not do it? What am I missing?

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If ISPs Are Going to Charge for Bandwidth, Why Not Charge End Users?

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Can we prevent a food breakdown?

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Marijuana Horticulture – Jorge Cervantes

Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower’s Bible is the most complete, thorough, and comprehensive cultivation book available on the market today. This book has been dubbed the “bible” by its readers because it explains every aspect of cultivating marijuana and yielding high quality and abundant crops. It explains […]

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Codex: Imperial Knights (Interactive Edition) – Games Workshop

Imperial Knights are ancient war machines of the Imperium, each one a towering engine of destruction capable of laying waste to an entire army. Smaller and more versatile than the Titan Legions, Knights often give close support to Imperial armies, where their mighty guns and devastating reaper chainswords vanquish even the strongest foes. Each Knight hails f […]

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Codex: Legion of the Damned (Interactive Edition) – Games Workshop

Appearing from the shifting tides of the Warp, the Legion of the Damned are mysterious bone-adorned Space Marines who arrive unlooked for to aid the servants of the Imperium. No one knows for sure where they come from, but none can doubt the fury with which they fight, or the trail of dead foes they leave in their wake. Tormented by a ghostly past and afflic […]

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Dataslate: Tyranid Invasion – Rising Leviathan II (Interactive Edition) – Games Workshop

The invasion of Satys enters a new and deadly phase as the Hive Mind drowns the planet in a deluge of biohorrors. Though tens of thousands lie dead already, the Catachans, led by Colonel Krelm, desperately try to hold key fortifications within the irradiated jungles, hoping to keep the swarm at bay. The surviving members of the Aurora Space Marine Chapter fi […]

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White Dwarf Issue 6: 8 March 2014 – White Dwarf

The Chaos Helbrute attacks in issue 6 of White Dwarf! We celebrate the arrival of a fantastic new plastic kit with painting guides, designers notes and more. Jervis and the rules team also discuss the uses of Imperial Knights in Warhammer 40,000. About this series: White Dwarf is Games Workshop’s weekly magazine, and boasts a wealth of great content, fr […]

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White Dwarf Issue 5: 1 March 2014 – White Dwarf

Issue 5 of White Dwarf celebrates the release of the Imperial Knight kit with a look at the new Codex: Imperial Knights and the glorious new Imperial Knights Companion book. There’s also a ‘Knightly Duels’ minigame which allows you to use your Imperial Knight in a fun new way, along with painting guides, a Battle Report and much, much more. Ab […]

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How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, says, “Yes, […]

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Decoding Your Dog – American College of Veterinary Behaviorists

More than ninety percent of dog owners consider their pets to be members of their family. But often, despite our best intentions, we are letting our dogs down by not giving them the guidance and direction they need. Unwanted behavior is the number-one reason dogs are relinquished to shelters and rescue groups. The key to training dog […]

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The Art of Raising a Puppy (Revised Edition) – Monks of New Skete

For more than thirty years the Monks of New Skete have been among America’s most trusted authorities on dog training, canine behavior, and the animal/human bond. In their two now-classic bestsellers, How to be Your Dog’s Best Friend and The Art of Raising a Puppy, the Monks draw on their experience as long-time breeders of German shepherds and as t […]

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Crimson Slaughter A Codex: Chaos Space Marines Supplement (Interactive Edition) – Games Workshop

Cursed are the traitors that turn from the light of the Emperor, and few are as haunted by their descent into madness as the Chaos Renegades known as the Crimson Slaughter. Once loyal sons of the Imperium, the Space Marine Chapter once known as the Crimson Sabres, has earned a terrible and bloody reputation for the murder of whole worlds. Plagued by the ghos […]

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Can we prevent a food breakdown?

Posted in alo, ALPHA, Citizen, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, horticulture, LAI, Monterey, ONA, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Can we prevent a food breakdown?