January 09, 2006
If phone and cable companies get their way, today's Internet could be laden with tollgates, express lanes, and traffic tie-ups -- all designed to make money for the network companies, says Business Week.
Verizon CEO Seidenberg says content companies who provide advertising-supported applications should pay to use their broadband networks.
AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre, openly criticized applications like Vonage last month.
"What [Google, Vonage, and others] would like to do is to use my pipes free. But I ain't going to let them do that." Whitacre and AT&T argue that they need flexibility to exact a toll from Web services that hog bandwidth.
US telecoms giants, including BellSouth and Verizon, want to levy fees on internet services such as Google music and film downloads over their telephone networks.
Under the Supreme Court's "Brand X" decision in June, cable companies can bar rival Internet providers from their networks. The FCC wants to extend that right to telephone companies and Eliminates Mandated Sharing Requirement on Incumbents' Wireline Broadband Internet Access Services (pdf). Copps got SBC to agree to carry competitors webpages and service for 3 years.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has said it is a priority to relieve the "Baby Bells" from their historical obligation to allow others to lease access to their networks. It looks like that's extending to content.
Om Malik calls it The Slow Lingering Death of Net Neutrality. Instead of "open access" telcos might regulate access. Want Skype or VOD from Google or Yahoo? They better be on the telco payola list.
Malik says we are already paying for internet access - about $40 a month in the United States. In a WSJ story, he found this quote that sums up the telco's attitude:
“During the hurricanes, Google didn’t pay to have the DSL restored,” said BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher. “We’re paying all that money.”Says Malik... "If you charge people about $75 a month for DSL and phone service, it is your job to fix the line".
“We need a watchful eye to ensure that network providers do not become Internet gatekeepers, with the ability to dictate who can use the Internet and for what purposes,” said Commissioner Michael Copps of the Federal Communications Commission. He helped press to get the FCC enforcement power over issues of “net neutrality” as a condition of recent mergers in the telecom industry.
Om Malik and Niall Kennedy discuss the issue of Net Neutrality in their podcast, Two Tier Internet (MP-3). The full transcript is here.
Cable and phone companies want to turn the "open access" internet into "tiers" of premium service.
Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said today that their new video service would provide a richer and more personalized experience then cable tv. Verizon hopes to deliver traditional broadcast and video-on-demand fare over fiber. Seidenberg said predictive modeling can suggest other content and integrate it from a variety of sources. Keller, Texas, where the company launched FiOS TV last September, already claims 20% market share. “It’s only one market but it’s grown faster than just about anything I can recall,” Seidenberg said.
Malik believes that munical wireless may help maintain the "open access" model we have today. Cable/telco duopolies want to shut it down. Don't look for leadership from Kevin Martin. He's with the telcos.
Malik believes that munical wireless may help maintain the "open access" model we have today. Cable/telco duopolies want to shut it down. Don't look for leadership from Kevin Martin. He's with the telcos.
