I always thought this was a good idea, at least for small independent content providers. If we're going to have the web be for more than just buying stuff, the money's gotta come from somewhere. It's pretty clear that advertising doesn't work, at least not enough to keep everyone afloat. People are used to "paying for the internet" in one place - at the ISP. The internet kinda has an amusement park feel to it - pay once and you get to go on all the rides for free. So if some of the money coming from the ISP went to the content providers, I think it'd be a good thing.

on the other hand, when this does come to america, it'll probably just be used to funnel a bunch of money to msnbc or some other big-business net-presence that doesn't need it. there's very little chance of it actually getting money to the independent content producers - the ones who really need and deserve the money.