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SBC Wants to Make Google Pay
Whitacre: 'Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?'
SBC's CEO Ed Whitacre argues that he wants to make portals like Yahoo & Google pay to use SBC's network. "Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it," says Whitacre. "So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?"

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riturno
join:2004-04-20
Dallas, TX

1 edit

3 recommendations

riturno

Member

Relevant chunk for the lazy.

"How concerned are you about Internet upstarts like Google, MSN, Vonage, and others?
How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. 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! "

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I like that he "ain't going to let them [use the pipes for free]." Evidently the money that SBC subscribers pay is so low it is considered free by SBC. It seems that subscribers are supposed to purchase DSL from SBC, but they are not supposed to use it. By his logic, AOL should have to pay SBC for their dial-up users. What a steaming pile of telco-think.

This is why the beleaguered Lightspeed project and the defunct Project Pronto will take much, much longer to roll out. They are more focused on ROI for the shareholders than providing the services customers want. As a business they have a fiduciary duty to the shareholders, but to solely focus on this means that there will be market opportunities that they will miss. Maybe not today, but I cannot see this strategy succeeding.

packetscan
Premium Member
join:2004-10-19
Bridgeport, CT

2 recommendations

packetscan

Premium Member

WTF

I do now like where this is going..

Hello SBC it's your customers that are going to these site.
Might i add you are already receiving monies from said customers.

This is just @#$%#@$%@#$%~~!