LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- There's no such thing as a free lunch on the Internet, according to Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, who said Thursday that providers of bandwith-intensive Internet applications, including Google and Microsoft, should "share the cost" of operating broadband networks.
According to Seidenberg, Verizon and Google are already talking about how such compensation might be structured, striking a tone far more diplomatic than AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre, who last year openly criticized
Internet application providers like Google and Voice over IP provider Vonage Holdings.
"We talk to them [Google] all the time, and they understand the issue," said Seidenberg, in a question-and-answer period following his keynote speech Thursday at the Consumer Electronics show here. Google, which already offers a bevy of online apps like email, instant messaging, voice and satellite map searches, is expected to announce a video-download service
here Friday. (Google could not be reached for comment immediately.)
While Seidenberg said Verizon "intuitively" believes that the Internet should be open to all applications, he also said that "we need to make sure there is the right economic model," especially in regards to so-called "free" or advertising-supported applications, which generally do not offer any direct compensation to the network service provider.
"We have to make sure that they [application providers] don't sit on our network and chew up bandwidth," Seidenberg said. "We need to pay for the pipe."
Making the jump from outdated legacy technology to a more modern digital infrastructure will allow businesses to innovate at the speed and scale needed in today’s marketplace.
The business world is speeding up. The longer IT leaders wait to get their needs met, the more at risk their businesses and their jobs will be.
By arming SD-WAN networks with end-to-end intelligence, analytics-driven predictions, and predictive automation solutions, IT teams can simplify infrastructure management and assure higher levels of quality experiences for users.
