Seidenberg: It’s About Cost, Not Blocking

[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Mike Farrell]
Network Neutrality, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said Thursday, is more of a cost issue than of the potential blocking of certain Web sites on the Internet. Seidenberg said that in the broadband world, as users “camp out” on the Internet more, Verizon needs backbone facilities to carry the traffic across the country. “If you buy your DSL [digital subscriber line] from FiOS, you'll never have any problem with the bandwidth from your house to the first point in the network,” Seidenberg said. “But the issue is that the backbone needs to be built. Who is going to build it?” Seidenberg added that the options are either that the Internet-applications companies like Google foot the bill, or that it falls on Verizon with no regard to how the company will recoup that cost. "I think where we are now is one big ruse to shifting costs and hiding behind the notion that a company like Verizon will block traffic so therefore you better make sure that these guys can't block traffic and give everybody in the world free access to broadband services," Seidenberg said. "I think we have to be real careful. We won't be quiet on this point."
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6306370.html?display=Breaking+News
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