From Slashdot:
"Yahoo! is carrying an AP story explaining how ISPs are worried large streaming videos could 'choke the Internet.' This is used as a yet another reason for tiered pricing for access to content providers." From the article: "Most home Internet use is in brief bursts -- an e-mail here, a Web page there. If people start watching streaming video like they watch TV -- for hours at a time -- that puts a strain on the Internet that it wasn't designed for, ISPs say, and beefing up the Internet's capacity to prevent that will be expensive. To offset that cost, ISPs want to start charging content providers to ensure delivery of large video files, for example."


This just pisses me off. Want to know what I think? The internet is designed just fine. Nothing is in jeopardy but the traditional ISP business model, which has them all afraid now. For years, they have been selling services based on the fact that most people will never use the high bandwidth for more than "burst" transmissions. So they oversell their capabilities. For years we've been bombarded with "Unlimited Bandwidth! High Speed DSL!!!" advertising designed to draw in customers. Now that people are actually trying to use what they've bought and paid for, the ISPs are trying to back out of it.

If I choose to use my 5Mb connection at maximum capacity, all the time, then you DAMN WELL better be prepared to let me. After all, Telco's have been givin BILLIONS of dollars worth of tax cuts and subsidies to upgrade and maintain their networks, and if they haven't used it wisely, then they have no right to penalize or charge me AGAIN for something I already purchased.

I think the real thing they have not taken into account, is without content providers (whom they also want to bill. Us for using the content, the CP's for hosting it in the first place, that way the Telco's can get $$ coming and going) noone would want to use the damn high speed services anyways.