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SBC CEO: Pay up if you want to use our pipes
acousticiris writes "If there were any delusions that Ma Bell Wasn't Back, SBC CEO Edward Witacre has cleared that up in an interview with Business Week Online. When asked about Google, Vonage and other Internet Upstarts he responded in typical Ma Bell Style: 'How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?'."
We swtiched over to SBC for our landline to save a few bucks a month, because we're in a multi-provider dead zone where I live out in the 'burbs of the 'burbs (plus, my wife hates cell phones). I tried to sign up with DSL from SBC at the same time as the landline signup - they don't run DSL to my address. Nobody does. (Well, Speakeasy managed to find someone to do it back in the dot-com daze, but it was over $100 a month for 144k IDSL, and my work covered the bill.)
So I can safely say to Mr. Dinosaur at SBC - I'll never pay to download stuff over your pipes! You can't make me! Ha ha ha!
Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
Why yes, yes I am, and by your spelling I see we must be in the same grade? Do you attend special ed by chance?
Thanks AC! I really appreciate your adding so much relevancy and insight to the issue being discussed. ad hominem is always so useful is working out problems in discussion.