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French Telecom Claims To Have Forced Google To Pay For Traffic

Posted by Soulskill on from the setting-a-precedent dept.

Dupple writes "The head of French telecoms operator Orange said on Wednesday it had been able to impose a deal on Google to compensate it for the vast amounts of traffic sent across its networks. Orange CEO Stephane Richard said on France's BFM Business TV that with 230 million clients and areas where Google could not get around its network, it had been able to reach a 'balance of forces' with the Internet search giant. Richard declined to cite the figure Google had paid Orange, but said the situation showed the importance of reaching a critical size in business. Network operators have been fuming for years that Google, with its search engine and YouTube video service, generates huge amounts of traffic but does not compensate them for using their networks. An editorial piece at GigaOm says Google is abandoning its principles and giving Orange 'the incentive to demand the same from other content providers.'"

6 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Makes no sense. by CurunirAran · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Internet IS DATA. I don't get ISPs. They provide low quality service at exorbitant prices, and then complain about clients using their services.

    1. Re:Makes no sense. by cob666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I was under the impression that end users were paying for bandwidth they're using. Now ISPs want usage paid for by the user AND the content provider? Nice business model.

      --
      Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law - Aleister Crowley
    2. Re:Makes no sense. by sumdumass · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Maybe this will work out in our favor. Perhaps it will lead me to forcing best buy to pay me for buying their products or something.

      Sarcasm aside, I completely agree. Unless Google is using some sort of peering agreement and just going through their network, all the bandwidth and everything is already paid for by the customer who requests it. There is absolutely no reason to have it paid for twice.

    3. Re:Makes no sense. by jbo5112 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Google is changing it by coming an ISP. As soon as they offer service in a reasonable share of the market, they can refuse to pay anyone. If the ISP doesn't comply, they can't offer Google to their customers. Orange gets Internet lite. This gives me yet another reason to dislike France.

      Google is probably running traffic straight from their networks to Orange, so charging the smaller, connecting network an interconnect fee isn't out of line. However, with two large netowks, they usually just call it even. Google's customer facing network is the 2nd largest in the world, without even counting the new Kansas City service, so it would actually make more sense for Google to charge them.

      If I were Google, during negotiations I would have run ads to Orange customers on the main page about Orange wanting to charge Google for bandwidth customers paid for, and point out that additional fees would make it more difficult to run a free service, possibly shutting down access. It would give Google more leverage to just say no to fees, especially if Orange is getting 100,000's of complaints. Option 2 is to charge the customers for each youtube video and explain why. If running Internet search is lucrative, then why is no one else making money on it? Microsoft is losing $1 billion or so per year, and Yahoo nearly went bankrupt.

    4. Re:Makes no sense. by davester666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hell, what if they just refused to pay right now, and instead of sending regular traffic to that network, send a "You are being held hostage by your ISP, which is demanding that we pay them so you can access our services, even though you have already paid them to access the internet. Please complain to your ISP and/or government."

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  2. Full of shit by Mullen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The CEO of Orange is full of shit. There is no way that Google or any other provider would pay a carrier a "fee", since if they did, EVERYONE would start charging Google.

    Google is not dumb, they know when they pay out the first carrier, they will be paying out a lot of other carriers. I am really sure that Google would cut off France (or whom ever Orange carrier for) rather than give in. Google not only would have the users on their side (You know, they PAY for Internet), but also the local governments and every other business out there. Orange is just blowing smoke up people's asses on this one.

    --
    Linux O Muerte!