ISPs’ poor business models

BT have asked for state handouts in much the same vein as some other ISPs have. They say the BBC should carry some of the cost incurred by iPlayer.

This smells of cartel-like behaviour, with Tiscali and Carphone Warehouse pan-handling for tax-payers money with exactly the same fatuous arguments. The BBC already carries most of the cost by producing iPlayer and its content. That these ISPs have sold that which they cannot afford to give is not the BBC’s  (or old Missus Jones who has a TV but no internet) fault or problem: that’s those ISPs’ poor business models of offering unlimited bandwidth for too low a price.

The ISPs should bear the cost of their own mistakes – make a loss, change their business model, go bust, renegotiate their terms with their customers, stop advertising unlimited services that are limited. They should not be subsidised for failure.