I think it's a given that usage-based billing will hurt online education. But it's still worth pointing out, because the politicians who approve such thing don't take these ancillary costs into account when they run the numbers. "The real move here," writes D'Arcy, "is for the ISPs trying to kill Netflix to protect their video-on-demand streaming video services." Yup. "What does this mean for education? Most courses now have online components – videos to watch online, videos to publish by students, applications to download. Now, students will have to monitor their monthly bandwidth usage to decide if they can fully participate, or if they'll risk publishing a contribution and take a potential hit on their monthly bill." Our ISPs will have to be told that there are other agencies - like schools and universities, private broadcasters and friends and neighbors - who want to stream audio and video. They have to give up their monopoly on this.
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