You were charged once by telecommunications companies like Verizon (phone bill) and your government (tax subsidies) to build the network for the Internet They also built the networks to provide much higher bandwidth than you are getting.
You are charged again for the use of those lines through DSL and Cable. You have to pay a sliding scale for the speed you would like to receive.
Now Telcos want to charge companies who use the Internet more if they want to reach their customers faster. Example, Google would have to pay to be the fastest search engine over a company that could not pay the telco for the speed to compete. Not shedding a tear, yet.
Think of this, you want to start an Internet business. You pay to connect to the Internet to sell your new t-shirts but your customers complain that your site is slower than the Target website. Your servers are idle and your connection is not maxed.
Target would pay more not for the Internet connection but for the speed for others to connect to them. Effectively shutting out small business on the web.
Hasn't it always been that way?
NO, up until now we have on a level playing field where if you paid to be on the Internet you could be relatively sure that the bottleneck would be based on your own capacity and connection speed.
Now, telcos want to charge because sites like Yahoo and Google get lots of traffic. It does not cost the telco anymore to provide the service, Google is just using what they pay for. Effectively, this charges businesses for a third time.
Why you should care about this:
When government allows businesses to punish companies for being successful, it always hurts the small business. Businesses should not be extorted because telcos want a piece of the action.
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sage and fancy dinner in downtown Asheville. The hotel allowed us to check in early but decided to "upgrade" our room. The upgrade was to an "art deco nightmare" of a room that was definitely bigger than the room we reserved but was also a smoking room on the lowest floor of the hotel. We walked around in it for bit but ultimately decided to pass and take a regular mountain view room on the highest floor. The view was amazing. Watching a sunset from king size bed is not overrated. Next on our list was the spa. I was in for my first professional massage. We had signed up for the couples massage. The facilities were very nice. I have no basis of comparison for places like this but it was pretty impressive to me. There was a mineral pool, lap pool, waterfalls, and attendants available but not in the way. The masseuse was great. Definitely not the last time that will happen. Dinner in downtown Asheville was fantastic. The Flying Frog Cafe is a upscale German/Indian restaurant. Not fusion cuisine, just two menus - actually three counting the house specials. Ask for the B-Section and you will get special table for two curtained off with white linen.
knew it should be exercised or even used. My outer hip hurt for three days. Wolf Laurel Resort is a resort in a very loose sense of the word. It is barn with snowy hill and snack bar. The conditions were really icy and think that contributed to my downfall - pun intended.
g. Good but not great. The grapes just aren't the same as California. But we grabbed a couple bottles to fill the wine cooler and commemorate the trip. I think the most striking thing was the number of openly gay men in Asheville. It was really kinda cool. Gay in Charlotte seems to be a less subtle - either closeted or advocates. It was nice to see two people out and just enjoying each other company.
