Oct.
30, 2005
Why
We Can't Give Up
From SBC CEO
Whiteacre:
"They don't have any fiber out there. They don't have any wires. They
don't have anything," he argues. "They use my lines for free -- and
that's bull. For a Google (GOOG ) or a Yahoo! (YHOO ) or a Vonage or
anybody to expect to use these pipes for free is nuts!"
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_45/b3958089.htm
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More from Whiteacre:
Q: How concerned are you about Internet
upstarts like Google,
MSN, Vonage, and others?
A: 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!
http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2005/10/30/1331319.html
NET NEUTRALITY means
nothing.
The layers approach won't work.
We need either a very specific new Telecom Act or we need physical
separation like BT.
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Get great pricing on Sprint DSL. Email
isps@ii4a.org for the document. |
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FCC Martin Can't Get a Dem
to Sign Off on Giving Away the Store
"FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who
supports the mergers, has pressed for no conditions at all.
He needs backing by at
least
one of the two Democratic commissioners on the four-member panel to get a majority. The negotiations come a day after the
Justice Department gave its blessing to the acquisitions, with limited
conditions. Those requirements fall short of the asset sales in overlapping areas
that SBC and Verizon rivals and consumer advocates had wanted to ensure
healthy competition in the industry."
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"Coddled Corporate
Giants" retarding US Broadband
Rob
Berger reports on Dewayne-Net
Technology List that a Salon article entitled,
Free
American Broadband!, when it first appeared on October 17, had the
following sub-title:
Coddled corporate giants make
broadband in
the U.S. slower and more expensive than elsewhere. But Community
Internet projects -- and a competitive market -- offer a solution.
It disappeared! It was replaced with a much more
boring
lead-in . . . something about France. The article is in Salon Premium,
so, in the event that you don't subscribe, here are the first few
paragraphs:
Next time you sit down to pay your
cable-modem
or DSL bill, consider this: Most Japanese consumers can get an
Internet connection that's 16 times faster than the typical
American DSL line for a mere $22 per month.
Across the globe, it's the same story. In France, DSL service
that is 10 times faster than the typical United States
connection; 100 TV channels and unlimited telephone service cost
only $38 per month. In South Korea, super-fast connections are
common for less than $30 per month. Places as diverse as
Finland, Canada and Hong Kong all have much faster Internet
connections at a lower cost than what is available here. In
fact, since 2001, the U.S. has slipped from fourth to 16th in
the world in broadband use per capita. While other countries are
taking advantage of the technological, business and education
opportunities of the broadband era, America remains lost in
transition.
How did this happen? Why has the U.S. fallen so far behind the
rest of its economic peers? The answer is simple. These nations
all have something the U.S. lacks: a national broadband policy,
one that actively encourages competition among providers,
leading to lower consumer prices and better service.
Instead, the U.S. has a handful of unelected and unaccountable
corporate giants that control our vital telecommunications
infrastructure. This has led not only to a digital divide
between the U.S. and the rest of the advanced world but to one
inside the U.S. itself. Currently, broadband services in America
remain unavailable for many living in rural and poorer urban
areas, and remain slow and expensive for those who do have
access.
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From Techweb
news on Yahoo:
Some of the nation's largest online retailers launched on Friday a
lobbying group formed to influence Congress as it tackles privacy,
taxes, Internet access and other issues related to the Web, organizers
said Friday
The Online Retail Alliance is expected to serve
as a
collective voice for Internet retailers. ORA members include the
Electronic Retailing Association, EBay Inc., InterActiveCorp and its
subsidiary the Home Shopping Network, ShopNBC and others.
On Internet access, which retailers call "net
neutrality," the ORA is looking for legislation that would ensure a
level playing field on the Internet, as consumers sign up in increasing
numbers for broadband with cable operators and telephone companies.
With so many people depending on these two
industries
for Internet access, the ORA is concerned that cable and telephone
companies could sign deals that would make it easier for consumers to
visit the sites of some retailers, at the expense of others.
Congress is expected to take up the issue of net
neutrality in rewriting the Telecommunications Act. |
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