Am I missing something.........Internet access

[serryjw]

quote.......
As Ed Whitacre, chairman and CEO of AT&T, told Business Week in November, "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 free is nuts!"
end quote.......

Now, in all fairness I think he is right. Some have/will make major investments in the future of the internet WHY should Google, Yahoo and Vonage ( to name a few) get away with it costing nothing AND they get all their additional revenue from advertising, Now to limit us to be second class citizens after corporate america uses the net for their purposes is Bushit. I want free access to the ww web,with no discrimination in regard to content or we are going to have ONE HUGE FOX NETWORK( like exists on AOL NOW)

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060213/chester

[sandnsea]

1. I don't know what they're talking about

I truly don't and I've tried to figure this out. Google does pay for bandwidth. I pay for bandwidth for my server, if I don't want top speed bandwidth, I can pay for a T-1 or something. Just like I can with my internet connection, I already pay extra for a higher speed DSL connection. I don't know what the hell these people want now, I just don't get it.

[TexasProgresive]

11. Google doesn't pay your

ISP for access to you. They only pay at their end.

[NVMojo]

2. It's top on Donald Rumsidiot's agenda at this point. Stop free speech.

Connect it to terrorism.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mike_whi_060224_rumsfeld_zeros_in_on.htm

[Selatius]

3. It's a threat to freedom of speech.

If the corporations are allowed to have total control over the flow of information, then they can manipulate that flow of information to their advantage and the disadvantage of those interested in preserving freedom of expression.

[merwin]

4. Do you pay the manufacturer of the steering wheel when you buy a car?

Why should car dealers get away with selling you a car and the manufacturers of the steering wheel not getting any of their profit??

The way it works is that the backbone providers (the 'freeway') sell service to ISP's (the 'onramp') who sell service to companies like Yahoo/Google/etc (the 'business on the sidestreet'). There's no reason why the backbone providers should be getting any money from the companies like Yahoo, because the backbone providers have already sold service to the ISP's. If they also got money from companies, they would be getting paid twice.

[serryjw]

6. ....BUT the backbone is the ISP

or at least the major ones. I am on AT&T dial up. They are the backbone and my ISP. Now when I use Yahoo for my 'other' email or spend hours surfing thru Google; how are they paying?

[sandnsea]

12. I can offer email services

Through my server and email program. I pay $300 a month for the server AND connection to the backbone. The company I use pays direct to the phone company. When I was thinking about running a high speed ISP in my little town, I contacted QWest and the fee would have been somewhere around $10,000 a month to buy bandwidth on their OC-3. That line connects with the main pipes across the country. QWest and AT&T deal with those fees, my sister works for Alltel so she explained it at the time, they lease each other's lines etc. That's why I don't get what AT&T is doing, sounds like they're trying to pull the wool over everybody's eyes.

[datadiva]

5. Maybe I'm off base

but I believe it's all about corporate control. It's like corporations fighting each other over control of us. I can also see how the phone companies own the hardware and deserve to be compensated for that. I am not sure thats what it's ultimately about.

[salvorhardin]

7. That's bollocks

Google, Yahoo and Vonage have all made huge investments in improving the current internet and creating next generation technologies that add value to the internet for everyone including AT&T. But Whitacre's problem is that he really hasn't a clue of what the internet is and isn't and what value means in terms of the internet. Of course, if your business model is threatened it's easier to dig your heals in and scream bloody murder about unfair competition and imagined thievery than it is to build a new business model that reflects current realities and trends.

I know I trot this essay out whenever an issue like this comes up, but it's well worth the read.

World of Ends
What the Internet Is and
How to Stop Mistaking It for Something Else.
by
Doc Searls and
David Weinberger
http://worldofends.com

The Nutshell

1. The Internet isn't complicated
2. The Internet isn't a thing. It's an agreement.
3. The Internet is stupid.
4. Adding value to the Internet lowers its value.
5. All the Internet's value grows on its edges.
6. Money moves to the suburbs.
7. The end of the world? Nah, the world of ends.
8. The Internet's three virtues: a) No one owns it, b) Everyone can use it, c) Anyone can improve it
9. If the Internet is so simple, why have so many been so boneheaded about it?
10. Some mistakes we can stop making already

[mntleo2]

8. Pipes Were Tax Payor Paid?

Private industry also paid for the laying of fiber, but much of the infrastructure was laid by We The People. We paid for it, we own it. This is one major example of private industry copulating with politicians and our public business, IMO. Just because private industry contributed, so what? So did we. Private indsutry now has a sense of entitlement, so it wants to control ALL of it, and then corral it off so you pay to go out of their sites, much like long distance is paid. Right now, I believe our "last frontier" is the Internet. trhis is something imprtant to preserve before they come in, kill all the wildlife, cut down all the "trees" and build their ugly Rick Santorium McMansions.

My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle

[deadcenter]

10. Don't we continue

to pay for it via the two federal taxes attached to the phone bill?

[AndyTiedye]

9. Google ISN'T Using their Pipes for Free. WE PAY the ISPs.

Has AT&T forgotten the fact that they BILL their customers for internet access?
If they were giving internet access away for free they might have a point, but WE PAY THEM for that access.
Very likely the government is paying them too, for access to our access!