[10803] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
billing on the net
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (thosstew@aol.com)
Thu Mar 10 04:25:55 1994
From: thosstew@aol.com
To: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Wed, 09 Mar 94 21:08:45 EST
Glenn Tenney wrote:
>
> Now, if you had suggested that all telecom providers be required to handle
> the billing (the way the telcos do [or did] for 976 numbers), then you'd
> have a solution that would work and support small information providers.
>
Now, if I were a telecom provider, say one that had experience with a credit
card like Discover, boy would I love that. In fact, all of the phone
companies have a lot of experience metering network usage, sending out bills,
and collecting payment--they might be among the most efficient billers in the
world. It does make you think, doesn't it, that the real money in a
commercialized Internet might not accrue to the providers of pipes, nor to
those who put their "content" on the net, but to the folks who handle the
checking accounts, credit accounts, and other, as it were, paperwork.
Tom
