“..Google
saves money on its deployments in various ways, such as piggybacking on existing
power line infrastructure and building its own network gear. [Also] by encouraging people who want home
service to get their neighbors to sign-up in advance, lowering the risk of
deploying to a particular neighbourhood…”
It’s good to hear that these cost-saving ideas, well rehearsed on
this side of the Atlantic, have been successfully put into practice. On the
revenue side, financial prospects would no doubt be further enhanced if ISPs
were free to offer tiered levels of internet service, the sort of customer
segmentation widely seen in other retail markets. Hitherto, many have assumed that regulators
would not permit this sort of pricing freedom, judging it to be contrary to the
celebrated principles of 'net
neutrality'. There was therefore
considerable surprise this week when Neelie
Kroes, no less, appeared to challenge that assumption. Writing in the French newspaper, Libération, she is reported
as saying that telecoms
providers should be able to sell access to the internet at varying speeds and
with differing download limits. Because this appeared to represent a change in
the Digital Commissioner’s stance, her official spokesman later clarified these
statements:
"Neelie Kroes supports people having
real choice over their internet subscription. That absolutely includes a right to
choose full internet service, but if an operator wants to sell you a basic
package for a lower cost, and you want to choose that because it suits your
needs or if you have a limited budget, then what is the problem with that?”
So, a glimmer of light…
No comments:
Post a Comment