Quote:
Originally Posted by nomadking
Actually the much bigger and wider problem is this assumption that everything costs nothing to provide and so it should be provided for free.
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Everything costs something, the question is whether the provision of email service can be priced effectively and if so, whether it costs anything like what some ISPs are charging. Given the trivial amount of data a single email box generates I suspect charging for it, with a reasonable profit on top, would likely cost ISPs more in admin to collect than the amount they’re collecting. Google doesn’t charge for Gmail because it has always believed the Adsense data it gathers is sufficiently valuable. Apple doesn’t charge because its basic iCloud data backup allowance is small and it charges a small premium for more (but, I suspect, is charging a lot of people that small premium, so it adds up).
British ISPs who charge are basically following a “value added” approach, namely that £5 or even £7.50 is worth it to someone who lacks the time, skills and/or confidence to go changing their login to all of the dozens of web based services we all now rely on. It is however bordering on exploitative IMO.