The consensus among cable and telecom execs at this week’s Reuters Telecommunications, Cable and Satellite Summit, according to Reuters: the federal government should steer clear of mandating the ability for high-speed users to get content and services of their choice over the high-speed lines the companies own. BellSouth Corp. CTO Bill Smith told the meeting: “My biggest concern is people may inadvertently write rules that may sweep in things they don’t need to.” SBC COO Randall Stephenson said, “I think if you try to sell a product that constrains what customers can get access to, you’re not going to have a very marketable product.”
Verizon President Lawrence Babbio raised an issue not addressed in the report when he said his company doesn’t monitor content that goes across the network — for legal reasons, these companies don’t want to be perceived as monitors but that doesn’t mean they can’t set up delivery networks for certain content providers. Verizon already determines to a large extent what kind of content can be accessed by its mobile users by the deals it makes and the measures it takes to wall off other content.
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