Bellsouth to charge content providers for delivery

Not content with the money their subscribers are paying them, BellSouth now plans to (e.g.) charge Apple a nickel to "reliably deliver" a song you buy from iTunes.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B02432D2D-1EE0-4037-A15F-54B748D6CF26%7D&siteid=mktw&dist=

This is the gayest thing I've heard all year.

that's retarded

He's an a*****e. He's been flogging that idea for ages. The "using their network without paying for it" is total b******t. The customer is paying for the bandwidth. If they can't provide the bandwidth for the price they're getting, charge more or lower the bandwidth. Blackmailing content providers is going to backfire imo.

I like the way the stock quotes update in "real time" on that page.

motherface wrote:

I like the way the stock quotes update in "real time" on that page.

Yeah if you click the link you get the volume updating in real time too which is kind of interesting. I wonder if it's delayed 15 minutes or actually realtime; it doesn't seem to say.

I'd turn it around on them and blacklist anyone using their internet service, forcing thousands of people to change providers.

Or put in a new clause, charging anyone who uses sbc an extra 10 cents per song, to cover the fee sbc is charging, and to cover the manpower it took to set up the extra fee, with a big bold disclaimer that this only effects sbc customers, and that if you changed your isp you would not have to pay that fee.

khrath wrote:

I'd turn it around on them and blacklist anyone using their internet service, forcing thousands of people to change providers. Or put in a new clause, charging anyone who uses sbc an extra 10 cents per song, to cover the fee sbc is charging, and to cover the manpower it took to set up the extra fee, with a big bold disclaimer that this only effects sbc customers, and that if you changed your isp you would not have to pay that fee.

That's a pretty good idea