1

I like the recent hostile tone.

This is pretty annoying too. Put them together and you get–a conspiracy nut who takes money from evil telcos, I guess.

Posted by: Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 05-13-06 7:06 PM

2

Oops, did I just say "You're cute when you're angry"?

Posted by: Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 05-13-06 7:07 PM

3

"Big corporations" = Google and Yahoo! but not Verizon and AT&T? Way to go, dude.

Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05-13-06 7:27 PM

4

2 - Yeah, yeah, I'm fucking adorable.

3 - Word.

Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 05-13-06 7:33 PM

5

The self-assements continue.

Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 05-13-06 7:53 PM

6

assessments

Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 05-13-06 7:54 PM

7

I'm particularly loathe to trust telcos. It takes a fair bit for me to think of Microsoft as the lesser evil, but I have no doubt that it is.

Posted by: SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 05-13-06 8:07 PM

8

God this debate is so dishonest. I worked in telecom for a few years, and those bastards are lying like crazy.

The portrayal of Google, Yahoo, eBay, etc., getting a free ride is pure horseshit. These companies pay a ton for their connectivity. I worked for XO, who sells a lot of trunks to these companies, and it ain't cheap. Telco's jockey like mad to sell to these companies, because these are HUGE accounts.

Telecom got bitten in the ass by the tech boom. The nineties saw ridiculous amounts of investor money go into startups like XO to lay fiber all over the place. The big players also greatly expanded their networks. Companies spent money like water, and capacity left demand in the dust. So the result is cutthroat competition for selling internet access.

Now why is this a problem for telcos? Take a look at your long distance rates. Think back even 10 or 15 years ago to what long distance rates were like. Now you can go into Costco and buy a calling card for .04 a minute anytime you like. At the same time they spent billions overbuilding fiber networks, competition has driven margins on other products like voice traffic into the ground.

And now that competition prevents them from jacking up internet access fees, they wan't to change the rules of the game so that they can up their margins. Well fuck them.

Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 05-13-06 8:19 PM

9

Wow, that video was one dishonest and mendacious piece of crap.

I had a whole long thing to say, but 3 got it right. "Who should control the internet, the people or the government?" What about the telcos? Sheesh.

I like his animations of America's Test Kitchen, but... blech.

Posted by: mrh | Link to this comment | 05-13-06 9:14 PM

10

Yeah, if that video doesn't set off your BS detector, you should check the warranty.

Posted by: Gaijin Biker | Link to this comment | 05-14-06 2:19 AM