Jack's Blog

Please note that this content is very old and doesn't necessarily represent my views today. It remains here as an archive of my past - I hope it provides you some entertainment value.

Free Internet: Providers

Regarding previous blog post Phones, a rhetorical question was asked:

Why can’t we just have free internet?

Nowadays, the Internet is economically accessible by most users, given that you’re not looking forward to getting the best connection, ADSLs or Cable Modems supplies you with mostly stable Internet access where you can even stream music and watch a video at the same time with no difficulties.

However, that doesn’t deem a necessity to rule out the better providers, as there are also quite a considerable amount of users in need of uploading files and participating in video conferences, which deems better networking power necessary. Moreover, downloading files are no longer expensive tasks; We all download bulks of something at some point in the week, it’s almost a typical usage. Therefore, service providers try their best to give a better service – Upgrading infrastructure to increase the upload / download speed, expanding fibre cable coverage, making deals with overseas ISPs to extend exclusive Overseas Bandwidth… Et cetera, and frankly it all boils down to costs.

So, why not have free Internet then? Sure. Let’s imagine a world in which Internet is free and isn’t crappy. By doing so, we’ve created a world where people actually no longer worry about getting a connection to stay online. But what about the people there who would provide this service? Well, firstly we should consider that the fund for keeping the Internet foundation alive has to come somewhere. You could say that some of us could build the switches and hubs and keep it alive ourselves, but electricity and maintenance isn’t going to pay itself. In the end, either we pay for the uptime ourselves and hence not-so-free Internet, or the government actually be helpful and provides it to us. Considering the other world is different, we are free to assume that the government pays for uptime and be the provider.

Now that’s disappointing because their government controls their lives even more than we are being controlled. Long lives this other dimension with free Internet where the Internet is kept up by the government!