Why Not Have The Government Tax Google To Pay For Next Generation Networks?
from the because-it's-idiotic? dept
For all of the bad arguments we see against network neutrality legislation, at the very least they come from a basic (if skewed) free market rationale. They very much focus on the idea of keeping the government out of the process (which is somewhat amusing when you consider how many favors, tax breaks, government-granted rights of ways and subsidies were used to get the telcos to where they are today). While it was AT&T's Ed Whitacre who kicked off the latest round of net neutrality debates a year ago by saying that companies like Google should pay AT&T for delivering their content, at least he was talking about a private deal between two companies. More recently, the telcos have backed away from the idea that Google owes them money for a free ride, perhaps because it's idiotically wrong and provably false. That's resulted in some net neutrality critics saying that the telcos would never, ever block a service like Google (despite their own earlier statements).Apparently, however, someone forgot to tell all of that to Canadian cable company Videotron, who's chief stirred up the pot by not only suggesting that all of these internet companies are getting a free ride on his network, but tossing out all the "free market" "hands off" crap to come right out and say he thinks the government should put a "transmission tariff" on various internet service to help fund the ability for his company to build a new network. Somehow, I think Robert Depatie may have lost a bunch of support from free market think tankers on that suggestion. Of course, there is no fundamental reason for this, other than greed from a company who wants more money from the government because it's unable or simply too lazy to build up its own business. David Canton responds to this suggestion the same way some of us suggested Google should respond to the earlier suggestions that they were getting a free ride: they should ask the telcos to pay them. After all, it's services like Google and Apple and Amazon that make the broadband lines the telcos and cable companies provide valuable. The problem is that these telcos and cable companies think they have the power position here, when they don't. Or, perhaps, in this case, Videotron realizes it doesn't have the power position, which is why it's asking for the government to step in and force Google to pay up.
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Google Shrugged
"You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against -- then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. Your fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any overnment has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted -- and you create a nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system...that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be easier to deal with."
- Ayn Rand
"Google is Prometheus who changed his mind. After centuries of being torn by vultures in payment for having brought to men the fire of the gods, he broke his chains—and he withdrew his fire—until the day when men withdraw their vultures."
- modified a bit from Atlas Shrugged (1957) by Ayn Rand
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government
has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't
enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a
crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws."
-- Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged"
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Google Shrugged (2)
"To shrug."
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Free Ride?
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Idiots
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Not a Free Ride
Some always wants a Free Ride or wants to try and Capitalize on someone elses coat tells.. It's Disgusting.
Damn PIGS.
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On to something
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Re: On to something
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Analagous?
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Fee Ride
So shouldn't they get some sort of break? Believe me I think teleco's are large and slow and sometimes hinder innovation, but they are staple and I like that. I don't believe its the end of a free society like the one comment though. I just feel that both sides of the coin need to be looked at/
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Okay...
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Business...
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Troll
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uhh, ottowa is in canada
as a matter of fact, the claims about ISP's degrading vonage service so that people would switch to their VOIP service was in canada too.
a good half of these net neutrality concerns could probably be laid to rest by invading canada. given the behavior of the telecommunications industry, they will probably greet us as liberators.
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Telcos
The real problem is its easier for telcos to allocate their profits into expanding and bringing on more clients in at any costs and let regulation worry about keeping things operating properly.
Telcos found a way to break the rules of business by getting the favor of government. Instead of cutting operational costs, investigating new business models, cutting services that are not profitable, renegotiate contracts with other exchanges/customers, etc. like any normal business; they would much rather not have to take risks of changing prices, work things out with other networks, risk pissing off some clients, and do work. Its so much simpler lobby the government to force the clients to do the work themselves....
Basically if they want to charge people by byte transmitted, do so. If you want to charge for unlimited access to the network, do that instead. The problem is you can't charge people for unlimited use and per byte transferred at the same time. The costs and problems of operating the network infrastructure in a profitable fashion IS the telco's business...leave the customers and the government out of it.
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Nobody cares about Quebec
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