[ih] History of the Economics of the Internet?

[John Levine]

It appears that Jack Haverty via Internet-history <jack at 3kitty.org> said:
>The Internet also seems to be stuck in a "subscription" mode of its 
>economics.  Everyone wants you to pay every month for something. ...

Well, yeah.  My ISP which happens also to be my phone company has run
fiber to my house, and provides service capped at 500Mb each way.  Their
fixed costs are high, and don't vary much if I use more or less data,
for which they charge about $100/mo and they throw in a landline phone,
via the same fiber modem.*

How else are they supposed to charge than monthly?

For news and other content sources, see the recent discussions of micropayments.
People hate them, even if they are usually cheaper than a subscription.  I pay
subscriptions for newspapers and some freemium sites where the subscription gets
more content and/or fewer ads.

>I fear the time if and when The Internet takes over the restaurant 
>business.  Can you imagine restaurants with a subscription "all you can 
>eat, all the time" business model?   Your favorite Italian restaurant 
>will deliver as much great food as you want whenever you want it, as 
>long as you pay them the monthly fee. 

You probably thought you were kidding, but:

https://www.delish.com/food-news/a71899035/olive-garden-pasta-pass/

R's,
John

PS: Since they still think like a phone company, the modem has a backup battery
so that even if the power fails I still have phone service and can use the Internet
at least until the battery on my laptop runs out.