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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



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.


  

Get great pricing on Sprint DSL. Email isps@ii4a.org for the document.
 
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."

  


"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.
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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