Killing the Golden Goose
Another thing that stood out in the article The End of the Internet was the following:
Senior phone executives have publicly discussed plans to begin imposing a new scheme for the delivery of Internet content, especially from major Internet content companies. 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 [for] free is nuts!"
Did the Telegram companies say this when national newspapers used their "pipes" to build medai empires - no they just benefited from the money they made by the extra traffic.
Did the Post Office say this when mail order empires were built on their "pipes" - no they benefited from the monet they made from the extra trafiic.
Did the phone companies say this when telemarketing companies made profits on their "pipes" - no they just benefited from the money they made from the extra traffic
The big carriers should be happy they are making money off the Internet, not trying to get a bigger slice of the pie at everyone else's expense - otherwise they might find that they kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
Tags: fcc regulation the nation monopolies