Quotes on Network Neutrality
Bellsouth's William L. Smith told reporters that he would like the Internet to be turned into a "pay-for-performance marketplace" where his company would be allowed, for example, to charge Yahoo for the right to have its site load faster than Google. (Washington Post, December 1, 2005)
Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg says that web applications (like search engines, online video, VoIP telephone) need to "share the cost" of broadband - broadband that's already been paid for by the consumer. "We have to make sure that they [application providers] don't sit on our network and chew up bandwidth. We need to pay for the pipe." (TechWeb News, January 5, 2006)
AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre said: "What they [Google, Vonage, and others] would like to do is to use my pipes free. But I ain't going to let them do that….Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?" (Business Week, November 7, 2005)
UPDATE: Whitacre still hasn't gotten the message. Now he's saying "I think the content providers should be paying for the use of the network.... Now they might pass it on to their customers who are looking at a movie, for example. But that ought to be a cost of doing business for them. They shouldn't get on [the network] and expect a free ride." (Financial Times, January 30, 2006)
HDnet owner Mark Cuban thinks that "we need multiple tiers of service [on the Internet]. … I want the telcos and the cable companies …to work out a way to exchange traffic at multiple quality of service levels." What he really wants is the right to buy off Internet providers to ensure that HDnet's video web content works faster and better than video on other sites. (Blog Maverick, January 15, 2006)
Comcast's David Cohen doesn't get it. He says "network neutrality is nothing more than a solution in search of a problem." The problem is that Internet providers like Comcast only care about their own bottom lines - not protecting the open and freewheeling nature of the Net. (Congressional Quarterly, November 11, 2005)
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