Google has told Networking Pipeline they won't cave to efforts by Verizon, BellSouth, and AT&T to create a two tiered Internet, where websites and IP services pay the bells or get relegated to the bottom shelf. "Google is not discussing sharing of the costs of broadband networks with any carrier," says Google spokesman Barry Schnitt. That contradicts recent comments made by Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg at CES.

"We talk to them [Google] all the time, and they understand the issue," said Seidenberg, who told CES attendees that Google and Verizon had been negotiating how such compensation might be structured. Not so, says Google's Schnitt: "We believe consumers are already paying to support broadband access to the Internet through subscription fees and, as a result, consumers should have the freedom to use this connection without limitations."

AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre started the ball rolling back in October by insisting Google and others should pay to "use his pipes." BellSouth notched up the rhetoric shortly thereafter by suggesting Google should have helped BellSouth pay for hurricane Katrina reconstruction.