Connection Insurance
A few weeks ago I went a couple of nights without my cable modem (or tv) due to no-reason-given by Time Warner. While it’s not the end of the world by any means, it’s difficult to have unplanned access disruptions when you work on the web.
During the downtime I learned that all available wireless networks were secure. Over twenty of them, all locked down. Pretty impressive considering a few years ago it was easy to hop from one unsecure network to another if your connection was down (although most in the building have the same provider, so it was usually pointless anyway).
Going to an internet cafe or a local Starbucks is always an option, but I don’t find that the easiest way to get work done.
So I’m wondering, why don’t companies offer connection insurance?
More and more people depend on their internet connection for work, entertainment and their home phone connections.
Time Warner is currently the fastest connection I can have from my home right now. If Verizon DSL wants to make any money off of me, they can charge a low fee, something like $30 yearly to have their connection available. If I need to use their connection, which gets triggered by a certain amount of data within a certain amount of time, then I get charged a low per-day fee, something like $5.
This isn’t limited to cable and DSL (or FIOS, if you’re lucky). Broadband wireless could also be a “connection insurer”. They all just need to be prepared for possible network spikes if a competitor has big problems.
Between outages and upgrades, connection insurers could make a decent amount of money on volume.
Comments:
Next entry: Sportsline Becomes CBS Sports
Previous entry: The Vanishing Vick