@ross fleming
> Unless you just want unlimited broadband on the 24th July in 3 years time :-)
That's fine so long as it's in the afternoon. They're installing the gas in the morning.
(old Soviet-era joke)
Posts by Huw Gently
3 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Apr 2008
UK.gov backs ISPs on charging content providers, throttling P2P
Thursday 29th January 2009 18:53 GMT 
"innovation" must mean something else
The only way I can see this angle making any sense is if the sort of innovation they have in mind is the ability to create innovative new price points. Think "region coding" meets the various bastard Windows-lite versions meets upmarket barista-style order menus. This is not innovation. This is market segmentation. It's just as nefarious as a drug company marketing the same chemical under different names to treat different diseases. Maybe even more so, because the ISPs will be almost forced to analyse you and your traffic patterns in order to figure out what box they should put you in (and how to build the boxes) so as to maximise profit. It's only a hop, step and a jump from there to wholesale commoditisation of consumers, rather than commoditisation of the product, which they fear so much.
You may mark my words, though, it will end in tears for the ISPs. The kind of innovation that they expect and crave is not the kind of innovation that customers expect and crave. There's no box big enough for the Internets. It will be fun to watch as the ISPs play the part of a certain Viking king of England. And as for the users, who can predict exactly /how/ they will thwart the ISPs' best laid plans?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
