I just don't understand the concept of a tiered internet.

For those out there in net-land not aware of whats coming down the pipes, some companies (Verizon for one, as well as Cisco and a few other companies) are beginning to push for the idea that if a website is too popular, it should pay more for web visitors to visit that website.

The concept is that Google makes billions of dollars off of being so popular, so companies that provides internet access like Verizon think they deserve a piece of the pie and thus Google should pay them for their visitors to access their website.  They think this is fair because google is making billions from visitors accessing their website.

This is my problem with the concept.

A)  I pay for internet so I can browse the web.

B)  Google pays tens of thousands of dollars (hundreds of thousands?) to  host their web services via OC-48s or whatnot.

Why does Verizon need more money from Google or from me?

Oh yeah, profits are steady, and they don't know how else to make money off of the internet.  The internet providers have already convinced me to to spend 50+ dollars a month on ever-increasing broadband rates which I have yet to notice due to most websites not having the bandwidth to support my 6+Mbps connection.  So they can't charge much more to consumers, why not try to charge the website operators?  They can't literally charge more to most of the websites though, because while Cox Cable provides my internet, a website like Google might utilize Verizon or even be their own telco for all I know.

As far as I'm concerned, if they are that desperate for money, here are some services I think they could provide me that I'd be willing to pay more for.

Gamer Elite Service.  For a moderate fee, Cox could offer me incredibly lower latency for better experience in games, webcames, etc.    They would do this by upgrading some of their key equipment that causes the mediocre latency and count on gamers to provide enough extra money to pay for it. 

Second CableModem Discount:  Right now, if the Dndorks crew opens up 8 or so different MMOs, we start having poor service.  Why not offer a 2nd cable modem at a discount rate?  With our router (which is a decent router, not superspecial but decent), I believe it accepts 2 broadband external connections.  If we could have the router automatically switching between cablemodems during peak usage, we'd have a lot better performance and lets face reality, the vast majority of the time that 2nd cable modem would be sitting unused or at least under-utilized.  its a win-win, they get to increase the number of effective subscribers and we get better performance for multiple family members.

Just 2 services, but things I'd prefer to see rather than find out that one day I can't access google.com because Google refused to pony up some money to Cox...