The Response to Google Fiber

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: March 5, 2010 9:14:55 AM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] The Response to Google Fiber

The Response to Google Fiber

[Commentary] Incumbents will spend millions of dollars, as they always have, to block Google fiber.

Google has become a large, highly profitable company; it has money and an army of lobbyists to fight the cable/DSL 
guys. In the end, here we are again, with a critical piece of infrastructure completely owned by one company - a 
private enterprise beholden only to its shareholders.

Does it make you sleep more peacefully knowing that the fiber backhaul your ISP uses is owned and controlled by a 
company that also happens to control the search market? Sure, Google will stick it to the hated cable/DSL duopoly, but 
what happens when things start turning ugly for Google in its key market (search)? What happens when Google starts 
feeling the heat of competition? Google is already the subject of an antitrust investigation by the European 
Commission. Haven't we learned any lessons from the past? If you allow one company - a cable operator, telco, Internet 
search engine - to control access to communications, in the middle or last mile, it will not give up so easily and it 
will do everything in its power to stop competitors. It will use the political process - buying elected officials - to 
do its bidding. Do you think Google, a highly profitable enterprise, will be much nicer? What controls should we be 
putting on companies like Google that will end up owning such an important piece of infrastructure?

<http://www.muniwireless.com/2010/03/03/whats-the-response-to-google-fiber/>

Courtesy of the Benton Foundation <http://www.benton.org>RSS Feed: <http://www.warpspeed.com/wordpress>




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