Internet Should be Free?

Tpex

Tpex

Teh Cyber Ninja
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I read the article about Canada's capping and it go me thinking:
All in all the WWW is one big network of cables and switches, the only cost involved for a network is maintenance, just like our roads and highways. The selling of bandwidth is just a way to capitalize on a never ending source.
in the future might the governments just jointly buy the cables connecting their countries together? and maintain the local networks just like they maintain the roads? payed for by tax? isn't this the logical solution?
 
That is how international countries operate their infrastructure. Its just the ISP's that charge for a service no? For the resale & routing etc of data. The service as u said. But in South Africa we pay Telscum's insane line rentals, I wonder in which other country do you have to pay a monthly fee just to get access to an ethernet cable that is connected to a couple of ISP's.

This is like having to pay the government or some private company a monthly fee just to be able to get out of your house? Before you even get into your car and buy petrol to drive around with.
 
Tweak said:
That is how international countries operate their infrastructure. Its just the ISP's that charge for a service no? For the resale & routing etc of data. The service as u said. But in South Africa we pay Telscum's insane line rentals, I wonder in which other country do you have to pay a monthly fee just to get access to an ethernet cable that is connected to a couple of ISP's.

This is like having to pay the government or some private company a monthly fee just to be able to get out of your house? Before you even get into your car and buy petrol to drive around with.
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I know for a fact out first cable (SAT3 I think?) is owned by a consortium of companies
 
alf101 said:
What's the point of free internet if you can't use it?
If you can afford a pc, you can afford internet.

To use a pc you need electricity.
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By that logic you should get a free car to use the roads?

you miss the point of my post, its that internet should not be sold in bundles, since it is unlimited in supply, but instead should be open to everybody who by their means can access it
 
Tpex said:
By that logic you should get a free car to use the roads?

you miss the point of my post, its that internet should not be sold in bundles, since it is unlimited in supply, but instead should be open to everybody who by their means can access it
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I totally agree with you. I did miss the point.
 
Tpex said:
By that logic you should get a free car to use the roads?

you miss the point of my post, its that internet should not be sold in bundles, since it is unlimited in supply, but instead should be open to everybody who by their means can access it
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so if everything were free, where would the incentive be for the infrastructure to be upgraded, new technology rolled out, or service levels to be adhered to and improved upon?
please don't say we'd pay for it with taxes and the government would service it. we all know how that worked out...
maybe i'm missing your point as well?
 
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murraybiscuit said:
so if everything were free, where would the incentive be for the infrastructure to be upgraded, new technology rolled out, or service levels to be adhered to and improved upon?
please don't say we'd pay for it with taxes and the government would service it. we all know how that worked out...
maybe i'm missing your point as well?
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yes unfortunately we can't trust out government to keep things in shape, I as talking world wide tho.
Generally, governments are not immune to public demand, roads improved because people wanted to go faster, same should go with internet.
 
I can assure you that even with "free internet", a commercial and premium network would fast emerge. If this were a reality, I do not think it would be a good idea to prevent such commercial services emerging.
 
Tpex said:
All in all the WWW is one big network of cables and switches, the only cost involved for a network is maintenance, just like our roads and highways. The selling of bandwidth is just a way to capitalize on a never ending source.
Click to expand...

I'll take competition any day of the week to drive down prices, thank you. The problem we have in South Africa is the result of no true free market.
 
Tick said:
I'll take competition any day of the week to drive down prices, thank you. The problem we have in South Africa is the result of no true free market.
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you see no problem is companies "competing" to sell you something that should be free?
 
MickeyD said:
Should water and electricity be free?
After all, they are basic rights!
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yet water and electricity each require processing to be made usable, water needs to be purified and electricity needs to be made from coal for example.
 
Tpex said:
By that logic you should get a free car to use the roads?

you miss the point of my post, its that internet should not be sold in bundles, since it is unlimited in supply, but instead should be open to everybody who by their means can access it
Click to expand...

The roads aren't free.
 
Tpex said:
you see no problem is companies "competing" to sell you something that should be free?
Click to expand...

Why should it be free?

There is a great deal of money invested in the infrastructure, that money remains invested in the infrastructure irrespective of whether the network requires expansion or not. That money deserves a return on investment.
 
People have a very weird concept of what a network is. It seems as though some people think that once a cable is in the ground it is a transparent pipe that can be used to transfer data. This is unfortunately not the case. A typical exchange uses a lot of electricity. That needs to be paid. The exchange itself has running costs that needs to be paid such as security, rates and taxes.. All exchanges have battery backup, and some have diesel transformers as well. Batteries needs to be replaced every few years, making them quite expensive. On sites with microwave access (that includes a very large percentage of mobile towers) you need to consider spectrum cost. ICASA has proposed a new billing scheme for spectrum that will increase spectrum cost to large operators tremendously. These are all running costs that you get in perfect conditions where there is no equipment failure, no cable theft, no lightning strikes... Maintenance cost to a network is extremely expensive. Operator networks are not quite the same as your little home network. ;-)

I agree that bandwidth costs could come down, but claiming that access should be free is simply uninformed.
 
Tpex said:
where do you pay for roads? aside from in your taxes? (toll roads don't count)
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South Africa/JHB, tolling system kicking in next year surely does count
 
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