cross-posted from: https://vlemmy.net/post/152995
Alternative published title: AT&T/Verizon lobby group pushes for payments from Big Tech
Great idea. They’ve taken advantage of cheap publicily subsidized infrastructure for far too long while making obscene profits. This is a great idea, as long as the infrastructure itself and the operator/service provider is collectivized as well.
Can we collectivize big tech while we’re at it?
So ISPs are charging an arm and a leg, but they’re saying others should pay? I’d love to be in a business where someone else pays for my business expenses and I keep the revenue.
This type of logic only makes sense in the case of public utilities, not privately owned companies.
What do they think we’re paying for? I don’t see how the non-amortized costs (ie, non-infrastructure-buildout costs) could ever approach the amount they pull in revenue. This also ignores the fact that the telcos have gotten somewhere in the double-digit billions of dollars (iirc, around $40B) in taxpayer money to build out fiber infrastructure, that they never delivered on. What are they using this money for? What are they using their subscription revenue for?
You are mistaken: It’s not over 40 billion, it’s closer to half a trillion.
Thanks for the correction, I almost wish I didn’t know how bad it was!