Excuse me, but I already paid

An article in today's Washington Post, quotes John Thorne, a senior vice president at Verizon as saying that Google is freeloading for gaining access to people's homes using a network of lines and cables the phone company spent billions of dollars to build.

"The network builders are spending a fortune constructing and maintaining the networks that Google intends to ride on with nothing but cheap servers... It is enjoying a free lunch that should, by any rational account, be the lunch of the facilities providers."

Except that I've already paid my internet service provider for the capacity to bring whatever damn content I want to my home. So Thorne's argument is equivalent to Subaru accusing my local supermarket of freeloading because I carry my groceries home in my car without Subaru getting a cut.

This guy either believes this crap he's spouting, in which case he's a complete and utter idiot, or he doesn't, in which case he's little more than a shake-down artist.

This is so typical of the traditional phone companies. Instead of actually getting on with the task of providing the value added services that might let them capture some of the new revenue streams they go pleading to government for special deals. My own internet provider, Comcast, is a classic example. I've been using an internet based phone service for nearly 18 months and Comcast are still only talking about making their competing product - which costs nearly twice as much anyway - available in my area.