Over here in the US and Canada we constantly hear the telecoms and cable companies beating their chests about how all these big sites like Google and their high volume brethren are abusing the networks and that they should be allowed to charge them just as they do us. This of course brings up the whole subject of net neutrality and threats of government intervention.
Well it appears that the European cousins to our telecoms feel the same way as they are hyping the same load of trash using the same old tired reasoning of
We need to explain that this will reduce incentives for us to invest in much-needed networks.
Just as over here they are facing stiff opposition according to a post on Geek.com
Everyone except the networks seem to disagree with such thinking as the telecoms companies make revenue from subscribers, not content providers. Such a stance has now been backed up by the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes .
In response to the threat of action against Google from Telefónica, France Telecom, and Deutsche Telekom, she said users have a right to choose what content they view online. She also said net neutrality meant no network could block, or limit the speed of commercial websites.
It is amazing how telecoms through their constant manipulation of words think that their argument even has any merit. The idea that Google or any other web service for that matter is the one’s responsible for the network traffic is mind-numbingly stupid.
Just stop and think logically for one minute. If you and I, and every other person on the web, stopped doing Google searches, stopped watching YouTube videos would Google be using any of the network as these telecoms claim?
No. They wouldn’t. That is why they are called services or content providers . If we, as consumers, don’t use their services, don’t read or watch their content, then they are just a blob on the network not using any of the network’s resources.
The nice thing is that unlike here in the US and Canada the EU actually has the will and the ability to back up their threats to the telecoms.
