[Chapter-delegates] [ISOC-NY Discussion] Google plan would offer free Internet throughout SF

[Fred Baker]

the key question is "how will it be paid for?" If access is free, but  
the access network has to pay the backbone for transit services,  
money would appear to be coming out of thin air.

I suspect that the real result of this will be that the Internet will  
be free if you want the service that is provided for free, and that  
service will be subsidized by back room deals that leave the user  
receiving content he doesn't want so that the subsidizers will be  
willing to subsidize. Very much like the color-glossy-magazine and  
the newspaper industries; the service you receive is primarily paid  
for by advertisers, perhaps advertisers that know your location (what  
hot spot are you in?) and have some level of access to your private  
communications patterns (think about what google does with hit  
counts) and perhaps even your communications (gmail).

It's an Internet, I suppose, and you won't be being directly charged,  
but the advertisers are coming up with their cash somehow - you will  
be paying the advertiser. And ask yourself, if you were offering it,  
what services you would offer and on what basis.

It doesn't result in an internet for everyone. It results in an  
internet for the advertisers.

On Oct 2, 2005, at 1:13 PM, Veni Markovski wrote:

> That's the way to make sure Internet will be for everyone.
>