Internet Service Providers Want More of Your Money
by James Owens | May 11, 2020 | Technology
Is There a Solution?
At the peak of the good times for your cable provider, they had control of your internet, television, and telephone. Marketed as the “triple play,” internet service providers (ISPs) offered incentives for the bundle. They had little competition and were making billions of dollars. Life was good for these ISPs and consumers had few options. Often cited by homeowners and businesses as the most hated of all their expenses, two of the largest players have spent many years trading spots as the most hated company in America.
However, a group of small technology startups launched a chain of events to compete with these large ISPs, that disrupted the communication industry forever. And now providers are changing the rules in an effort to remain relevant and recapture the revenue of old.
As cellphones became more powerful and efficient, it slowly made the fixed on-the-wall wired telephone obsolete. One by one, customers scaled back and ditched the hard-line phone in favor of the mobile variety.
Next came streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus and others. Customers appreciated the on-demand nature of the products and lost patience for commercial interruptions, high cost, and the lack of flexibility traditional cable TV offered.
While these disruptions took years to develop, cable companies saw their revenues cut by 60-70% and now they want it back.
The Utilitization of Data
Utilit-i-zation. Is that a word? “It is now,” says James Owens, owner and founder of technology startup Soft Tech Development Corporation. He is referring to the seemingly clear business model towards which cable companies are steadily moving.
With the repeal of net neutrality in June of 2018, the way was paved for internet service providers to behave like utilities—water, gas, and electricity. Instead of charging flat rates governed by speed, the ISPs have already begun the process of changing to a consumption-based model. That is, you pay for what you use, exactly like other familiar utilities. The reason is clear. There is more money to be made by changing to this model, especially when the amount of data being consumed by individuals and businesses is expected to skyrocket in the coming months and years.
That’s not good news for customers. As a result, you can expect to pay more for all the data coming into and leaving your home or business. For customers, proof of these coming changes is in plain sight. If you approach the upper limits of data in your existing data plan, you will be moved to a more expensive plan. Just look at the bill. You can also expect to have a meter attached to your business or home that looks and operates very much like your electric or water meter.
Unfortunately, there is little you can do to combat this change other than self-govern the bandwidth you use or pay more for a richer plan.
There is a Solution for Consumers
Owens claims to have developed a technology that will revolutionize data speed, storage, and security through his proprietary data compression software. It’s called JOS™ Technology and it’s designed to optimize consumers’ hardware and mobile devices by improving the efficiency of data transmission and usage. With the introduction of JOS Technology, Owens and his team at Soft Tech expect to substantially mitigate the potentially devastating effects of the impending global “Utilitization” of data.
™
Computers have been storing data in the same way since they were first introduced. Files are stored on hard drives randomly—wherever the computer decides it has space and is convenient. This results in unusable portions of the hard drive that sits in between data files. Owens uses this analogy to explain. “If you had a 10’x10’ storage unit, and wanted to fill it with contents from your home like chairs, skateboards and a barbecue grill, you would end up with huge unused pockets of space even though it looked full. Imagine that those items could be condensed and be the uniform size of a shoebox. You could pack the storage unit floor to ceiling, eliminating wasted space, and gaining an additional 30-40% storage in the same space. That’s exactly how JOS™ Technology works.” By packaging data in this way, it provides faster, more efficient transmissions.
Not only does this mitigate extra charges from ISP’s, but it also allows them to provide a better quality service. Customers in remote areas can get the same speeds as customers directly on the data pipe.
Getting the Technology
Owens expects the technology to be available for beta in the next 6-12 months. To stay informed of new developments, timelines and product use, visit Soft Tech Development and sign up for regular updates.
https://www.softtechdevelopment.com
www.linkedin.com/in/james-owens-9b327028
