NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: [IP] Re: a wise word from a long time network person-- Merccurynews report on Stanford hearing
>>All I ask is that these charges be open and that the users have a
>>simple way to monitor their usage.
> Interestingly, when Rogers Cable attempted to do just this -- to
>warn users of impending overage charges by placing messages in their
>browser windows -- the "Network Neutrality Squad" jumped on them for
>"tampering" with Web pages.
I would be interested in hearing what alternatives would be
suggested here for this sort of customer communication. For
example, let's suppose an ISP were to implement some sort of service
tiers that related to bandwidth consumed, which I think is the
Rogers case (but I am not fully acquainted with this example).
If you had the customer's email address, you could send them an
email. But you may not have it, and even if you do they may fail to
read it. You could phone or snail mail them, but that doesn't seem
terribly cost effective and it'd be nice to use something IP-based.
So then there's the method Brett refers to, which is doing a browser
pop-up message or a redirect to a page or framed page with a service
notice. This seems to be an emerging approach to this problem.
What actual or theoretical alternatives do folks have in mind that
would address this differently?
Jason
[ If we assume for the sake of the argument that such a
notification needs to be done in-band, the obvious least
intrusive choice is a simple and *completely separate*
click-through "splash" page with the message.
But if you visit the Web sites of the firms who manufacture the
equipment to do page insertions, it's obvious that the big push
isn't for informational messages (though these are discussed)
but rather for ISP-injected advertising melded into existing
pages, that can "reach your subscribers no matter where they
browse!"
And by the way, there are folks who never do *any* Web browsing
on their Internet circuits. They deserve to be notified about
their usage limits too, don't they? So some alternative to
browser insertions is going to be necessary in any case.
-- Lauren Weinstein
NNSquad Moderator ]