NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] European ISPs Threaten to Join "Content Owners" to Gang-Up on Google
It appears that raw envy is finally enticing some giant ISPs -- at least in Europe for now -- into becoming very explicit about their feelings toward Google. As noted in: http://bit.ly/bXWkFU (Financial Times) (hey, I didn't choose those last two letters, don't blame me!) Telefonica, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom are now demanding that Google "stop using their networks for free" (golly, where have we heard that canard before?) and are suggesting that ISPs should team up with Content Companies whom the ISPs claim are similarly "oppressed." Stuff and nonsense. The ISPs are already being paid to carry the data that their subscribers want -- by those very subscribers! And CDNs (Content Distribution Networks) such as Google is deploying for YouTube are specifically designed to ameliorate any existing issues associated with peering or related costs. What we're seeing on the part of these ISPs is nothing more nor less than the Big Telecom version of "sour grapes." They're concerned that they'll be relegated to the role of "dumb pipes" it seems? Where does it say that providing Internet access services requires more than "dumb pipes" reliably and reasonably managed? Their threatened behavior is a textbook example of why Network Neutrality rules are so important. And for students of history, there's a clear sense of deja vu, since we've seen very much the same behavior by the titans of transportation access in the past, all the way back to the dawn of the industrial age (and arguably much earlier). The loud protestations of these ISPs -- and of Murdoch and his kin with their feet firmly planted in the last century -- should be appreciated for helping make very obvious how desperately they wish to warp the open Internet into a closed universe of walled content, where Internet users could be shaken down for every conceivable form of revenue stream to maintain their Internet access. He who controls the roads controls the Empire. True in Ancient Rome. Still true today. "Per aspera ad astra." --Lauren-- NNSquad Moderator