In EU, Google Accused of YouTube "Free Ride"

An anonymous reader passes along a Financial Times piece that covers a push by EU telecoms to get Google to pay them directly — years after US ISPs began rattling that sword, to little effect thus far. "Some of Europe's leading telecoms groups are squaring up for a fight with Google over what they claim is the free ride enjoyed by the technology company's YouTube video-sharing service. Telefónica, France Telecom, and Deutsche Telekom all said Google should start paying them for carrying bandwidth-hungry content such as YouTube video over their networks.... Some European telecoms groups fear Google will reduce them to 'dumb pipes' because the internet search and advertising company pays the network operators little or nothing for carrying its content. Rick Whitt, a senior policy director at Google in Washington ... said Google was spending large amounts on its own data networks to carry its traffic to the point where it is handed over to telecoms companies round the world." Note that FT.com operates on a "first few per month free" paywall basis.

Grrr.... evil moves

[Tei]

Telefónica is like neandertal people, really. I have read some declarations from the director, and I was forced to check the date.. I was like a talk from the dictator Franco. And France Telecom is everything that is wrong with corportations plus everything that is wrong by govern owned industry.

Can these two companys die, please?

Re:Utter stupidity.

[srussia]

This is like suing a car manufacturer because somebody got run over by a car they created.

A better car analogy might be highway operators trying to charge manufacturers of SUVs as they take up more space when driven by motorists on the toll-road.

start charging the Europeans for everything

[dltaylor]

Given that it was a European (well, Briton, but it is on "that" side of the Atlantic), working at a European facility, that mucked up a perfectly good Internet with this "web" thingie, all of the non-maintenance traffic other than mail, telnet, and ftp should be billed to the EU, plus a royalty for Al Gore, since he invented the entire thing.

I'm sorry!

[bazorg]

It's all my fault. My apologies to the ISPs. When I worked at Customer Service for one in the days of dial up, clients would ask whether visiting web sites abroad would add extra cost to their phone bill. I told them that no, all internet traffic is the same, you only pay to get to the ISP, the rest of the way is covered by the ISP.

Now it seems that my innocent advice ruined everything... I'm sorry.

Re:Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Why have all these criticisms of the EU been modded Troll? It confirms my suspicions that, for as critical as Europeans can be of the US, they don't realize what's going on in their own midst. They've made punishing success an art form.

Re:Seems like the bandwidth has already been paid

[corbettw]

No, but you implied it by saying the previous incarnation of these companies had their infrastructure paid for with taxpayer funds, then the new private companies got to "keep" that infrastructure. They didn't keep it, they bought it.

Words have meanings, and if you can't be bothered to use the right ones to convey your thoughts you're going to continue to have misunderstandings like this. You need to do a better job of expressing yourself.

In other words...

[Nerdposeur]

"How dare you provide the interesting, high-bandwidth content that help us sell our high-priced internet connections! We want a piece of that action!"

Yes, ISPs, it's time to demand your rights! And the movement is growing:

• Electric companies are suing air conditioning manufacturers for creating demand for electricity. "Our power plants can't keep up with these cooling freeloaders," they complain.
• Beer companies are suing bars for creating demand for beer. "If you didn't push beer so hard, our drivers wouldn't have to make so many trips," they say.

Justice will roll like a mighty tide!