Reply to post: Re: not all packets are created equal

Re: not all packets are created equal

> But what happens when customers start telling Verizon, "We'll pay a premium for the privilege!"?

I don't know how that would work - as an economic reality. The assumption behind your hypothesis is that some customer will call up Verizon and say "I am getting FiOS from you for USD $150/month. I would like to pay you much more for the same exact thing. How does $300/month sound?"

What are the chances of that happening?

Rigit now, under Net Neut rules, Verizon can charge more for higher overall speeds. Under existing rules, this qualifies as a different class of service. What they cannot do is prioritize their own content over Google's or Yahoo's, or DuckDuckGo's content over Google's, as an example.

If the Net Neut rules are rescinded, Verizon would be allowed to charge per packet destination. As in:

- Google access fee - $15/month for the first 100MB, $2/month for each additional 10MB

- Facebook access fee - $20/month for the first 100MB, $5/month for each additional 10MB

etc etc etc

Or they could just decide to block certain types of contents they find objectionable, or going against their own political agenda, etc.

Somehow, I do not like the idea of Verizon deciding that I can't watch 1984 because, hey, they don't agree with it.