According to a British study, the day of the two-tier Internet could be just around the corner. Not only will you pay for your service, but Internet Service Providers (ISPs) might start charging websites to allow faster access for customers. The study, conducted by Jupiter Research, says that the idea might prove very tempting to ISPs, manyof which operate on thin profit margins to be competitive in the broadband marketplace. However, the idea of charging at both ends could also have a negative impact, alienating many customers. In technological terms, it would be easy to implement. ISPs already have traffic management tools that they use to control bandwidth, which some use to lower the priority of access to peer-to-peernetworks. Those tools could be used to give greater priority to sites that might want to play ball financially, such as a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication company. Certainlythe idea might appeal to a number of ISPs, since it could help shore up profits. However, British broadband companies have come under fire recently about a lack of transparency. A thinkbroadband survey earlier this year showed that ads from ISPs about speed of service could be misleading. Although companies were marketing services as“up to 8mbps,” a proportion of customers were on services that were actually no more than 2mbps. “Whether they are doing deals with websites or hindering potentiallycompetitive services, they have to be absolutely clear. Consumers need to know that they have access to everything or not so they can make a fair decision about which service to use," saidanalyst Ian Fogg.
