Rich Fiscus
8 Oct 2007 19:59
A Japanese telecommunications company is planning to implement a nationwide data network that will offer connection speeds between 30Mbps to 1Gbps.
What's raising some eyebrows about the ambitious plan, is NTT Group's stated intention to charge extra for priority access to network bandwidth. That would mean customers who don't pay extra might experience quality issues with Streaming media like television programs if network resources are stretched thin.
The issue of paying for bandwidth is at the heart of the Net Neutrality debate. While broadband service providers often point fingers at consumers and online media providers, consumers tend to disagree with that assessment. Since internet service providers often market their services as being suitable for things like streaming, a lot of consumers feel ISP attempts to charge extra for bandwidth required for streaming are unreasonable.
Ironically, the company unveiled a video conferencing application at the same time.
Source: CNet News