A friend mentioned in his blog an article published on Businessweek regarding the possibility of ISPs charging their subscribers ‘tolls’ for accessing online competitors’ services.

I have been lucky enough to experience the internet from its commercial beginnings. Before it, the most widespread equivalent in Hellas and other parts of the world, were BBSs, or Bulletin Board Services. There, you subscribed to one BBS provider and had access to whatever that provider offered, which was usually nothing by comparison of what is available for free today online, but also extremely limited compared to what was available online, for the cost of a single internet subscription, some years down the road.

The power of the internet lies partly in the freedom of all involved: the developers and content designers, through the use of open standards, the users, through uncensored/unrestricted, fast and cheap access. The former has started becoming reality with Internet Explorer 6 finally starting to support standards (at least partially) and Firefox becoming a decent enough browser, with enough promotion to force developers to take it into account. The latter, has always been cause of concern in many places in the world (even in the most developed parts) as the ‘market’ forces have struggled to maximise their profits without breaking the law (just bending it as much as it goes, thank you very much). A very suitable example of such a case is Hellas.
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