AT&T to Google: Pay up for your user's access!!!

You may have heard about this before, or you may not have. AT&T (and some others) are now trying to charge Google, Yahoo, and other major website for users to gain access to them thru the internet. Their position is that AT&T paid for the wiring of the internet, so Google, et. al. are benefiting at the expense of AT&T. Of course, that is like the cable company wanting to charge C-SPAN for providing content. Without content, the net is just one big nest of wires.

There is a very simple solution here. If AT&T doesn't want Google on their network without paying for it, all of AT&T's network customers should move to a competitor. I am sure Verizon, Time Warner cable, etc. would be HAPPY to provide the bandwidth. Or else, Congress can just consider nationalizing all internet backbones and fiber-to-home connections, and AT&T can stop worrying about it.

Sigh. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!