I'd Like a Bigger Piece of the Pie Please...In Fact, Give Me Yours Too!

Sure it sounds selfish and it probably is...but that's basically the argument being used by telecom executives from AT&T and Mediacom Communications Corp. are using these days. Mediacom Communications chairman and CEO Rocco Commisso is quoted extensively in an article over at Multichannel News that lays out his side of the argument again the proposed "net neutrality" laws being pursued by the U.S. legislature.

From the article:

This isn't the first time that telecom companies have stepped forward to make statements like this. AT&T execs have made similar points in the past. This is just the first time that they've been as latently honest about their reasoning for opposing the legislation. Basically, they want more money.

The companies argue that increased need for high speed internet access is being caused by the web sites that offer up high-bandwidth offerings. From things as simple as massive amounts of traffic (Google, Yahoo, AOL) to more complicated offerings like video on demand (iTunes, YouTube, ABC.com) the telecom companies claim that they are being forced to offer up more and more bandwidth without any compensation from the companies delivering the content.

But the last time I checked, high-speed internet service providers received payment from the SUBSCRIBERS. In other words, this whole "poor us" attitude comes off a little, well...trite. If the ISPs are experiencing slow-downs in their offerings, then it's their choice to either raise prices to their subscribers, or to build better networks. To that end, the article was just full of statements that had me rolling my eyes...

"If anything, if it should be changed, it should be changed that as people use your pipe, we should get something out of it," he said.

Umm yeah...you mean like the people that are paying you subscription fees to use your pipe? Remember? How you get money out of that?

"Our position at the NCTA -- I'm also on the board of directors of NCTA -- [is] government stay out of it. It's worked fine, you don't need to change anything," he said.

If it "worked fine" then why do YOU need to change anything? It will be very interesting to see where this goes...