Following my discussion on social exclusion if Internet sites have to resort to micropayment charging for visitors, a comment asked if I believe that Internet access is a social right, like housing and food.

The modern economy is making increasing use of the Internet to lower transaction costs which seeks “Internet discounts” for everything from insurance services to banking benefits and accessing government services online. Even HM Revenue & Customs is giving financial incentives to companies who file annual employer returns electronically (with a view to making it compulsory for the remaining businesses – It already is for larger ones). The capability of the Internet to lower barriers to entry in markets, increase competition and increase access to information (a key requirement for a ‘perfect competition’ economy) is phenomenal and it is something that every part of society needs to be able to access.

I guess by that I am indeed arguing basic Internet access is a social right just like housing and food. In the modern economy, exclusion from this can restrict your career prospects, access to online learning material, etc. If on the other hand you’re asking me if playing online games, and downloading movies online is a social right, clearly the answer is no. I am therefore not arguing the government should be running a national UK Broadband Service, but that we should be conscious that the ability to access the Internet can have significant social benefits. Premium Internet access is still a luxury.

The question I was posing in my micropayments article was whether a trend towards usage charging might lead to exclusion of those who can only just afford the cost of accessing the Internet.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 24th, 2006 at 9:25 pm and is filed under broadband.blog, general.blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.