So they overcharge the users and that's not enough, so now they want a piece of Google?
Right...
EU to Telecoms companies: Try charging Google and we’ll take action
31–40 of 47 posts
Re: EU to Telecoms companies: Try charging Google and we’ll take action
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dumb unexciting business models can still be very profitable. For example: toll booths on highways.
In the EU (At least in the UK), you have vast competition amongst ISPs with everyone undercutting everyone else. There's probably around 100 ISPs I could choose from to get my ADSL line from. I think the toll booth would fit in more with some US areas where there's only 1 ISP available (AFAIK).
But they all buy the ADSL access from BT and are basically just billing operations - if BT chooses to implement a pay per content they will have to pass that on.
If you have a cable connection then it's probably owned by Sky (murdoch) already.
Re: EU to Telecoms companies: Try charging Google and we’ll take action
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
The other part I don't understand is how the telecoms think they're actually going to get Google to pay this in the first place. If they tell Google they won't carry the Google traffic over their connections if they don't pay (sounds a bit like blackmail?) I'm sure Google would just say "Ok, see you later!". The telecoms that do that would just end up losing customers because really, who would want a connection that'…
They don't have to block access to Google. They just have to make Google a tenth of a second slower. The user won't notice that much, but Google knows how many millions of dollars it loses when its pages load slower.
Or they can just remove all google's ads and replace them with their own.
This is what BT (the UK's effectively monopoly phone co) did. The introduce a system (phorn) that monitored all your browsing and replaced the ads with ones by it's customers more targeted to your 'interests'.
It got found out when it removed all charity's ads following an earthquake and also replaced all the ads on a sesame street type kids site with ones based on the father's browsing the night before!
This was illegal but somehow the government never got round to prosecuting them - in spite of the EU telling them to.
Re: EU to Telecoms companies: Try charging Google and we’ll take action
#34It seems that since last year, a lot of companies are trying to cash in on Googles success. I'm always curious, why is it only Google that they want to charge? Sure, Google has the biggest presence online. But I'm sure other companies are not far behind. Facebook being one of them, especially in terms of bandwidth usage.
They may be waiting to see if Google can be rolled. If that happens, the floodgates will open.
Re: EU to Telecoms companies: Try charging Google and we’ll take action
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the EU (At least in the UK), you have vast competition amongst ISPs with everyone undercutting everyone else. There's probably around 100 ISPs I could choose from to get my ADSL line from. I think the toll booth would fit in more with some US areas where there's only 1 ISP available (AFAIK).
But they all buy the ADSL access from BT and are basically just billing operations - if BT chooses to implement a pay per content they will have to pass that on. If you have a cable connection then it's probably owned by Sky (murdoch) already.
That's not quite true - all they buy from BT is the "last mile" between the telephone exchange and the customer end point. Everything else is on the ISP's own (or rented) infrastructure.
Re: EU to Telecoms companies: Try charging Google and we’ll take action
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google is so ubiquitous to people's web use now it would only take one to not join the filtering for the idea to collapse. XYZ ISP would have a killer selling point ("we have Google!") and would almost certainly make a killing...
Honestly sounds like some sort of regulation is necessary, maybe? (– edit: could you please explain why that seems wrong or like a trollish comment to you?)
The comment to which you are replying offers a bit of reasoning as to why a cartel against Google would fail even without regulation: any defectors would have a big advantage in the marketplace.
Against that, you offered an assertion without reasoning -- "some sort of regulation is necessary". Your assertion is wrapped in vaguely dismissive filler words -- "honestly sounds like" and "maybe?" -- that suggest you think your assertion is so self-evident no one could contest it.
Perhaps that's not what you meant; but the second possible reading is that you're not taking any stand at all, just repeating (5 levels deep) one contested opinion, "maybe". Either way, it's not adding info or novelty... which can draw downvotes.
Re: EU to Telecoms companies: Try charging Google and we’ll take action
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly sounds like some sort of regulation is necessary, maybe? (– edit: could you please explain why that seems wrong or like a trollish comment to you?)
The comment to which you are replying offers a bit of reasoning as to why a cartel against Google would fail even without regulation: any defectors would have a big advantage in the marketplace. Against that, you offered an assertion without reasoning -- "some sort of regulation is necessary". Your assertion is wrapped in vaguely dismissive filler words -- "honestly sounds like" and "maybe?" -- that suggest you think…
A market where one market participant can, well, force other market participants to carry their content free of charge sounds to me like a failed market. That’s why I asked whether regulation might be something to counter that.
I don’t know whether it is. I don’t even know if my assumptions are correct. Maybe this is no failed market at all and it’s just normal and good that ISPs have no-charge peering agreements with Google.
Sometimes a question is just a question and not some veiled attempt at taking a stand :)
Re: EU to Telecoms companies: Try charging Google and we’ll take action
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
But they all buy the ADSL access from BT and are basically just billing operations - if BT chooses to implement a pay per content they will have to pass that on. If you have a cable connection then it's probably owned by Sky (murdoch) already.
That's not quite true - all they buy from BT is the "last mile" between the telephone exchange and the customer end point. Everything else is on the ISP's own (or rented) infrastructure.
True, all they rely on BT for is the bit that's completely impossible for them to get anywhere else or duplicate.
Re: EU to Telecoms companies: Try charging Google and we’ll take action
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
But they all buy the ADSL access from BT and are basically just billing operations - if BT chooses to implement a pay per content they will have to pass that on. If you have a cable connection then it's probably owned by Sky (murdoch) already.
That's not quite true - all they buy from BT is the "last mile" between the telephone exchange and the customer end point. Everything else is on the ISP's own (or rented) infrastructure.
True, all they rely on BT for is the bit that's completely impossible for them to get anywhere else or duplicate.
Re: EU to Telecoms companies: Try charging Google and we’ll take action
#40Companies want to play being a broker all the fuckin time.