Reality Check | Ephraim Schwartz | InfoWorld | Internet will go the way of Pay TV, aka cable | February 11, 2008 06:57 AM

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Internet will go the way of Pay TV, aka cable

February 11, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Internet will go the way of Pay TV, aka cable

The Internet is free. Applications are free. The people have won!

Baloney. The Internet is about as free as cable TV.

No one seems to talk about the fact that we are already paying for the free Internet. What do you think you’re paying for when you send your monthly check to an ISP for a high speed Internet connection?

I pay $42.95 per month for the Internet which gives me 6Mbps performance. For $52.95 I could get 8Mbps and if I lived in a major city, which I don’t, I could get 16Mbps for about $67.95.

Gee, that sounds like the Internet is actually costing me money.

At those prices should I be grateful that Google gives me free productivity applications? Or that I can watch the funny parts of the late night talk shows on YouTube?

My feeling is that I should get something for my money.

Okay, so if we think this through, what’s next?

Well, we have two roads to go down. Up until now the Internet is following the same business model as broadcast television. The shows on ABC, NBC, CBS, are free and paid for by advertising dollars. That's road one. And there is a lot of money out there for that.

So how then do you account for the success of cable, aka pay TV.

For one, most of the free shows suck, and cable offered better programming. Secondly, they offered current movies, uncut for the price.

By the way, have you noticed the movies you now get from HBO for free? How many times can you watch Alien, Alien 2 and Alien 3?

Now not only do you pay for a monthly subscription you pay again if you want to watch a movie made in the 21st Century.

This over the long run is what will also happen on the World Wide Web.

Road 2: The really good programming is going to cost. Probably using the subscription model.

But wait a second, subscribing to hosted, Internet applications? Isn’t that happening? I think it’s called SaaS [software-as-a-service].

Please stay tuned.

Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on February 11, 2008 06:57 AM

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COMMENTS

The Internet IS free.
***Access*** to the Internet is what cost money.

You hear the same argument sometimes about water. It comes out of air as rain and lands in lakes so why should I pay for it? Here's why... Infrastructure. Does that water get to your tap by magic? No. Someone has to pipe ($) it to a purification station ($), get rid of things you don't want to drink and from there pump ($) it though a pipe ($) to your home where it finally comes out of the tap on demand.

"The Internet" is the rain. Yes, much of it is free. But how do I get my straw into that lake? Someone has to connect to the "Internet" with wires (or fiber) ($) and routers ($) and such and then use some more wires ($), switches ($) and whatever ($) to get it to your house/office. If you're lucky, your provider might provide a "purification station" aka spam filter ($). I suspect you want some help if the "tap" goes dry for some reason. There are people ($) who are willing to help you but not for free.

Now, don't get me wrong. There is always the possibility that the folks you send your monthly check to are making more profit ($) than you might want to pay or have services that you don't want to pay for. But that's a different topic.

Posted by: Bob Bass at February 13, 2008 12:08 PM

The Internet is not a right, that should be free and not cost anything. I'm happy to pay for that; it's just about the only thing I pay for that's not a total ripoff.

Posted by: Libertarian Girl at March 1, 2008 06:25 PM

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