Someone I trust reasonably well has written glowing praise of a high throughput subnetwork that requires a monthly payment to use.

In SR4, this is easily representable as a (Rating) service that gives you +(Rating) Matrix Initiative for (Rating x X) nuyen/month. Choosing the X is important, though. Perhaps 100 when Rating < 3 and 250 otherwise?

I'd go with the :nuyen:100 for level 1 to 3 and :nuyen:250 for level 4 to 6. However, that would be public sector and trackable. Figure x2 cost for black service.

Also, it would only give its bonus if you went from your Commlink to their server, and then out from their server to the target. It would not help any for a direct connection "On the fly" hack from the target location.

Problem: going through ANY router, even a sweet one like theirs, has to be slower than going straight to whatever node you are interacting with. So there is no reason why it should give you more initiative than a spider operating out of the very node you are in. All it should do is reduce penalties for being routed through a lot of stuff, but such penalties don't exist in SR. The logical conclusion being that matrix technology has gotten fast and efficient enough to eliminate any need for this tech. Nice idea though.