Usage pricing and service classes should make the Internet attractive to many new users. Some casual users will find it more affordable and business users may find a more stable environment on which they can trust mission-critical applications. However, one of the defining norms of connecting to the Internet will be changed, a fact that should be weighed into any decision to implement new pricing practices … Usage-based pricing … may actually cost more on a per transaction basis than the underlying cost of the transport. In other words, counting a packet may cost more than sending a packet … For the Internet to succeed as a fully developed information resource, value-added service providers must have an easy means of being compensated for their services … Having this capability embedded in the network will lower barriers of entry for small, in some cases home-based, services. It can also provide a neutral source for billing verification.
Predictor: Keller, James
Prediction, in context:The 1995 book “Public Access to the Internet,” edited by Brian Kahin and James Keller carries the chapter, “Public Access Issues: An Introduction” by Keller, a research associate and coordinator of the Information Infrastruture Project at Harvard University. He writes: ”Flat-rate pricing is one of the conditions that has allowed the Internet to flourish. It has enabled low-cost dissemination, beta-testing and refinement of new tools and applications … The increased demand that has arisen due to the power and new resources these tools have brought to the Internet is creating a need for a new pricing model … Usage pricing and service classes should make the Internet attractive to many new users. Some casual users will find it more affordable and business users may find a more stable environment on which they can trust mission-critical applications. However, one of the defining norms of connecting to the Internet will be changed, a fact that should be weighed into any decision to implement new pricing practices … Usage-based pricing … may actually cost more on a per transaction basis than the underlying cost of the transport. In other words, counting a packet may cost more than sending a packet … For the Internet to succeed as a fully developed information resource, value-added service providers must have an easy means of being compensated for their services … Having this capability embedded in the network will lower barriers of entry for small, in some cases home-based, services. It can also provide a neutral source for billing verification.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Cost/Pricing
Name of publication: Public Access to the Internet (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Public Access Issues: An Introduction
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 38, 39
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne