SBC/AT&T + Verizon/MCI Peering Restrictions

Wed Nov 2 14:54:37 UTC 2005

On 11/2/05 2:04 PM, "Randy Bush" <randy at psg.com> wrote:

> the two year window is far too low given the sbc ceo's recent public
> statements on the use of his wires by google and the like.
> 
> randy
> 

For the curious on the list...

"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! or Vonage or anybody to
expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!"

- Ed Whitacre, CEO of SBC

-----

I choose to view this as ineffectual railing against the seemingly
inevitable subordination of bit transport to compelling content.

Memo to Ed Whitace:

They ARE using your pipes right now, and they AREN'T paying you money. The
funny thing is that your customers ARE paying you money for access to Google
and Yahoo. Broadband gets a lot less compelling without content, so don't
push it. 

-- 
Daniel Golding