Search Engine News has posted an excellent story about a plan by Internet Service Providers to create a two-tiered Internet access plan. While the ISP customer already pays for access to get online, this scheme is trying to get businesses to pay again for in order to be allowed to be reached by the ISP customer.
The rumors started last fall. The CEO of SBC, Ed Whitacre, had an ingenious idea. His company is charging DSL customers to log onto the internet, and this much is great. However, these sites on the internet are making money from his customers finding them. They are profiting from his profiting! Oh no!
The story lays out the whole plan that other ISP providers have already jumped onto in order to bilk more money from Internet usage, and then goes on to discuss the potentially devastating consequences of such an action as well as Google’s resistance to the scheme.