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BellSouth Will Charge Providers For Performance

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the so-much-for-a-fair-internet dept.

smooth wombat writes "In a follow-up to this Slashdot story from last month, BellSouth has confirmed that it is in discussions with content providers to levy charges to reliably and speedily deliver content and services of the providers. Bill Smith, chief technology officer at BellSouth justified content charging companies by saying they are using the telco's network without paying for it. "

2 of 594 comments (clear)

  1. Re:There goes by ipfwadm · · Score: 5, Informative

    They didn't have common carrier status to begin with. Remember this? The Wikipedia article on common carrier also says that ISPs are not generally considered common carriers, and do not wish to be so. Unfortunately, it's a bit thin on the details aside from saying that common carrier status carries "obligations they would rather avoid".

  2. Re:Your ISP customers paid you, numbnuts... by ivan256 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Go check out espn360.com.

    I'll wait...

    Back? Good.

    This is a perfect example of what is going to happen here. First, only a few stupid companies will pay Bell South (Even SCO got some takers). Then the content providers will start charging Bell South to allow users of the Bell South internet service to access their web sites. It's already started. The content providers know that they're in charge. There are so many ISPs out there that the ISP needs the content more than the content providers need any single ISP. Bell South will figure this out, or they will lose customers. Once again, the free market works.

    And I bet you were only half serious.