Tomorrow's Wall Street Journal is reporting that phone companies (BellSouth and AT&T among others) are seeking to charge Google, Vonage, Movielink and others for "priority" broadband delivery.
"The size and structure of the fee systems remain to be worked out, and the regulatory implications aren't clear. But already, the phone companies are meeting heavy resistance from companies that say making them pay for priority delivery of their content amounts to holding them ransom, thus hurting competition and, ultimately, the consumer.", the WSJ reports.
The article quotes Commissioner Michael Copps of the FCC as saying that "We need a watchful eye to ensure that network providers do not become Internet gatekeepers, with the ability to dictate who can use the Internet and for what purposes."
This does not bode well for independent producers of higher bandwidth content like us Videobloggers if phone and cable companies are able to do this. Keep your eyes on this as it develops...
- Ted
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Ted Tagami
tagami.com
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