Simple question: Should MS's online service be free now? No, as it does cost money to provide it and given that they are a company in buisness to make money...
Second question: Should Sony have charged for their online from some point early on and used the revenues to make their online service comparable to Microsoft's much quicker than almost 2 years later? Sony is in business to make money as well. They were losing money big time early on and that certainly would have offset some losses.