more on SBC hints at charge to Web publishers By Frank Barnako, MarketWatch

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: docx () io com
Date: November 1, 2005 5:25:01 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] SBC hints at charge to Web publishers By Frank  
Barnako, MarketWatch

On Tue, November 1, 2005 10:04 pm, David Farber said:
> WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) --- The chief executive of SBC
> Communications Inc. thinks companies doing business on the Internet,
> such as Microsoft Corp. and Vonage Inc., are due for a wake-up call.
>
> "How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a
> broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them," said Ed
> Whitacre in a BusinessWeek Online interview. "What they would like to
> do is use my pipes for free. I ain't going to let them do that."

So, were I a customer paying for access to the Internet (and all the  
sites on
the Internet), Ed Whitacre would prevent me from being able to make  
effective
use of the Internet service I paid for?

> He argued that because SBC and others have invested to build high-
> speed networks, they are due a return.
>
> "There's going to have to be some mechanism for these people ... to
> pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use
> my pipes?" He offered no details how his idea could be accomplished.
>
> For an Internet company to "expect to use these pipes free is nuts!"
> Whitacre added for good measure.

The Internet companies aren't using the pipe, his customers are.  And  
they are
paying for the privilege of doing so.  At least until Whitacre's  
ideas run off
his customers when they can no longer access the Internet (which they  
are
paying their Internet Service Provider (aka SBC) to be able to do).

I would think Ed Whitacre is the one who deserves a wake up call. . .  
the kind
delivered via 2x4 . . . or via a massive increase in churn numbers  
once his
idea to charge at both ends of the Internet connection is implemented.

--
Dylan Northrup - docx () io com - http://www.io.com/~docx/
"Harder to work, harder to strive, hard to be glad to be alive, but it's
 really worth it if you give it a try." -- Cowboy Mouth, 'Easy'


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