AT&T and Whitacre on Net Neutrality

Good but short interview in the Financial Times this morning with Ed Whitacre, CEO of AT&T (prior CEO of SBC).

Some choice quotes:

If someone wants to transmit a high quality service with no interruptions and ‘guaranteed this, guaranteed that’, they should be willing to pay for that,” the AT&T chief said.

“Now they might pass it on to their customers who are looking at a movie, for example. But that ought to be a cost of doing business for them. They shouldn’t get on [the network] and expect a free ride.”

Note that the cable guys have been virtually silent on this issue. Why? They already deliver video the old fashioned broadcast way and don’t face this issue. Eventually, they will have a harder time adapting to the non-broadcast IPTV model- but hey, why throw yourself in front of a moving bus when the telcos are willing to do it for you?

I’ve got to hand it to Whitacre for sticking to his message however unpopular it is. Even people who dislike what he has to say must admire his fortitude.

“We have to figure out who pays for this bigger and bigger IP network,” said Mr Whitacre, who was in New York ahead of AT&T’s annual presentation to investors and analysts on Tuesday. “We have to show a return on our investments.”

Amen.