This is a potentially concerning development: Verizon Executive Calls for End to Google’s ‘Free Lunch’.
A Verizon Communications Inc. executive yesterday accused Google Inc. of freeloading for gaining access to people’s homes using a network of lines and cables the phone company spent billions of dollars to build.
The "middle men" in the internet are looking to make some additional money. If they are allowed to proceed, the costs of access, already ridicuolously high for low quality and low speed service will likely go up. America lives in a fantasy of having a great and highspeed computer network, just like we think we have a great cellular service (some people do at least). A good read on this is Bleha’s May/June 2005 Foreign Affairs article, Down to the Wire. A rebuttal and response in a latter issue is also interesting, if not for the redirection of factors and failure to address the core issue of government involvement. I learned our local phone company was already training its people on the fibre optic wire is about run to home when they pulled the plug because they were getting bought out. That was at least 6 years ago and still no fibre. No incentive. Public-private partnerships are required and have been required for major innovation. Meanwhile, we pay handsomely for services we think are the best.
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