Kiss the Internet goodbye?

As governments award monopolies to telcom firms almost for the asking, such businesses should at least be expected to act in the public interest. In conservaland, however, public interest is a four-letter word.

Time Warner Cable has been "testing" a new payment structure in Beaumont, Texas. Under this new arrangement, Internet customers face rigid limits on their online use - and hefty charges if they go over the limit. And now they're expanding this "test" to other cities.

Clearly this was not devised as a method of allocating bandwidth fairly. By setting such a low limit, this was designed only to generate more revenues from average Internet users.

This is not the Internet of 15 years ago that used low-speed phone lines. This is the Internet of 2009, which has much greater capacity - so there's no justification for these limits. But with less and less competition, customers in Time Warner strongholds have few alternatives.

Japan and Europe have much faster Internet than even high-speed American ISP's. Yet they have no bandwidth limits - and they cost less.

If regulators don't rein in Time Warner, it's almost a given that other companies will copy its new payment plan. And then we can bid farewell to the Internet we once knew.

(Source: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2009/2/time-warner-cable-bandwidth-caps)