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Fees for Google & YouTube Speed

George R [PersonRank 10]

Thursday, August 5, 2010
13 years ago5,416 views

Edward Wyatt is reporting at the New York Times that Google may soon agree to not challenge Verizon if it slows down YouTube and other Google services unless users pay Verizon a premium.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/technology/05secret.html?_r=4&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1281002591-iAwZ4PClVZ0AIPvD0W+f8g

"Such an agreement could overthrow a once-sacred tenet of Internet policy known as net neutrality, in which no form of content is favored over another. In its place, consumers could soon see a new, tiered system, which, like cable television, imposes higher costs for premium levels of service."

"Any agreement between Verizon and Google could also upend the efforts of the Federal Communications Commission to assert its authority over broadband service, which was severely restricted by a federal appeals court decision in April."

"Google and Verizon have their own interests at stake in negotiating separately. The Android operating system from Google is used on many Verizon phones, including the Droid, a competitor to the iPhone from Apple. Consumer groups have objected to the private meetings, saying that too many stakeholders are being left out of discussions over the future of the Internet."

slashdot: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/08/05/0327200/Google-and-Verizon-In-Talks-To-Prioritize-Traffic

George R [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

Todd Shields is also reporting on this at Bloomberg.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-04/google-verizon-are-said-to-have-reached-deal-on-how-to-handle-web-traffic.html

His report seems quite different than the NYT report.

"The compromise as described would restrict Verizon from selectively slowing Internet content that travels over its wires, but wouldn’t apply such limits to Internet use on mobile phones, according to the people, who spoke yesterday and asked not to be identified before an announcement."

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

The NYT article shows how to spin a story in a questionable direction. The agreement between Verizon and Google is about net neutrality for everything except for wireless networks.

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

<< Google CEO Eric Schmidt declined to confirm a deal has been reached on Net neutrality between Google and Verizon but said his company is trying to bring together various factions.

"We're trying to find solutions that bridge between sort of the 'hard-core Net neutrality or else' view and the historic telecom view of no such agreement," Schmidt told reporters on the sidelines of the Techonomy conference following his appearance on a panel here.

"People get confused about Net neutrality," Schmidt said. "I want to make sure that everybody understands what we mean about it. What we mean is that if you have one data type, like video, you don't discriminate against one person's video in favor of another. It's OK to discriminate across different types...There is general agreement with Verizon and Google on this issue.” >>

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20012723-56.html

Jérôme [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

But is it OK to discriminate about sharing protocol (e.g bittorent)?

TOMHTML [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

http://www.globenet.org/IMG/jpg/net-neutrality-as-cable-company.jpg

TOMHTML [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

"Google may soon agree to not challenge Verizon if it slows down YouTube"
The logic in that way should be Google doing nothing to stop Verizon, so Youtube will be slowed down, then customers will think "that sucks, I gonna subscribe to another provider to get all what I want, cheaper". And Verizon will lose money, and will stop doing that. Well, it's what Google *should* hope. Look online newspapers, no one ever earned big money by moving from free to paid content..

What do you think?

Jérôme [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

[put at-character here]TOMHTML
1) Some people have only one ISP available in their area.
2) In 2006, Orange have been fined 256M €, SFR 220M € and Bouygues Telecom 58M € for cartel in the mobile business (they agreed on fixing prices and market shares from 2000 to 2002 and exchanged confidential, strategic information about subscriptions and terminations from 1997 to 2003). http://www.lexpansion.com/economie/actualite-high-tech/la-condamnation-d-orange-bouygues-et-sfr-confirmee-en-appel_118147.html. I bet they're tempted to do it again, especially because it's harder to switch your provider of fixed broadband than mobile phone.

justin [PersonRank 0]

13 years ago #

google have clarified the situation to the Guardian newspaper – the NY Times article is "quite simply wrong"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/05/gogle-denies-verizon-deal-net-neutrality

Mrrix32 [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

That middle package (Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo) is ANYONE going to go for that? Unless they're going to make it stupidly slow, Google's fast enough even on dial up isn't it?

DPic [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

<<What do you think?>>

That was my thought as well. This isn't Google's place to fight. This isn't an "agreement" that means anything. There is a place for Google to fight and defend us, and then there comes a place where we need to fight for ourselves. If we don't, well...goodbye neutral internet

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

http://twitter.com/googlepubpolicy/status/20393606477 says

"[put at-character here]NYTimes is wrong. We've not had any convos with VZN about paying for carriage of our traffic. We remain committed to an open internet."

Jérôme [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

NYT says Google is wrong http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/08/google-verizon-deny-deal/

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

NYT's article was speculative:

" Google and Verizon, two leading players in Internet service and content, are nearing an agreement that *could* allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users "

"The charges *could* be paid by companies, like YouTube, owned by Google"

"Such an agreement *could* overthrow a once-sacred tenet of Internet policy known as net neutrality"

"Any agreement between Verizon and Google *could* also upend the efforts of the Federal Communications Commission "

Juha-Matti Laurio [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

'FCC ends talks with ISPs and content providers':
http://www.dailytech.com/FCC+Ends+Talks+with+ISPs+and+Content+Providers/article19278c.htm

George R [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

At PC World, Ian Paul has some more coverage titled "Net Neutrality: Are Google and Verizon Waffling?".
http://www.pcworld.com/article/202741/net_neutrality_are_google_and_verizon_waffling.html?tk=hp_new

"London's Telegraph reportes Schmidt confirmed that Google had been trying for some time to come to an agreement with Verizon over the definition of net neutrality." (sic)

Juha-Matti Laurio [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

And

'Google and Verizon's Net neutrality manuevers: It's the money, honey':
http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/google-and-verizons-net-neutrality-manuevers-its-the-money-honey-158

George R [PersonRank 10]

13 years ago #

Robert Cringely has his take on this at the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/opinion/08cringeley.html

He speculates that Google may locate portable data servers at various Verizon sites.

Hervé [PersonRank 1]

13 years ago #

<<Google’s agreement with Verizon could very well be merely a way for Google to get its data closer to users, by dropping its shipping containers into Verizon data centers, or perhaps their parking lots. The phone company’s data centers, after all, are typically only one or two hops from Internet users.>>

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