SBC CEO on crazy pills
CEO Edward Whitacre talks about the AT&T Wireless acquisition and how he's moving to keep abreast of cable competitors
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How concerned are you about Internet upstarts like Google (GOOG ), MSN, Vonage, and others?
How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?
The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment and for a Google or Yahoo! (YHOO ) or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!
Online Extra: At SBC, It's All About "Scale and Scope"
Posted October 31, 2005 1:12 PM
Comments
Didn't the Supreme Court just rule in Cable providors' favor on this one?
What he is proposing is perfectly legal and sound business practice. Stinks for the consumer though.
Poor Vonage.
Ronnie, October 31, 2005 5:47 PM
So, the idea is that Google needs to pay SBC in order for SBC to allow its customers access to Google?
Maybe this is my ignorance talking, but does a cable TV provider get money from CNN, ESPN, et al., or is it the other way around? I always thought the content provider got the money in that transaction.
Why would it be any different for the internet? Suppose Google replied "fine; pay US, or we'll block access for YOUR customers."
R. J. Lesch, November 1, 2005 12:46 PM
Speaking through my hat here, but I think the same ruling permits cable providers the option of blocking anything they want. Free market philosophy dictates that the one provider that does not block content would become competitively dominant (people would chose that provider) thereby making it a bad idea to block content.
Sucks for you if you live in an area with only one high-speed provider.
Personally, I would go with dial-up before allowing someone to block content.
VIOP is another story.
Ronnie, November 1, 2005 5:26 PM
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