It seems that a war is brewing between the carriers (Verizon) and the service providers (Google). The carriers want to tax revenue generating traffic based upon the revenue potential rather than the traffic, and they want to charge both the sender and the receiver of the traffic.
This is like charging Walmart trucks more than other trucks for a bridge toll, just because Walmart make more money than other companies, but where the equivalent of the toll has already been paid for by Walmart’s customers.
One can assume that everyone is being superficially friendly but playing hardball in the background. The problem is that its impossible for the carrier to know the value of a single ‘bit’, since it varies according to what the ‘bit’ contains – is it part of an app, an ad, a video or text.
Verizon want a slice of the action because they know that some people’s bits have a high value-add and they themselves have been charging an absolutely massive premium for voice bits which are now being arbitraged to nothing.
The problem is that they cannot both the sender and the receiver, and they cannot charge the sender based upon the value of the data, without knowing what that data is.
This will be a titanic fight and everyone will lose, but nobody more so than people like Verizon, even if they do get people like Google to pay up in the short term. Equally the free ride is over, for the likes of Google, but they wont be paying what Verizon want. The Internet is more like the road network than a railway network – and Verizon are thinking in terms of railway networks.
I’m sure Om Malik will disagree, but then again, what do I know – he really understands what’s happening here.