Someone's forgotten where their bread and butter comes from!

TechWeb | Broadband network costs | Verizon Says Google, Microsoft Should Pay For Internet Apps

It seems Verizon either doesn't understand or has become so full of themselves to care about what really drives the web. Based on the above linked story, Verizon wants internet content providers to pay them to make up for their bandwidth costs they can't seem to recoup from their customers. They say that since big content providers have been upping the ante as far as what it takes to load their content in terms of bandwidth the content providers should be responsible for a portion of the transport costs of said content.

This creates a little bit of a web paradox, though, if you think about it. People don't like the idea of paying for something that up to the present has been free to them, and the same can be said for any business. That being said, one would also have to question the need for an expensive broadband internet connection without the wonderful content that it allows you to have in a small amount of time? I think that Verizon may be forgetting why people use the internet, and more importantly (for them) THEIR bandwidth... The content isn't created without a market demand, and the bandwidth wouldn't be required without the market demand for the content. So, breaking it down kidergarten style (as my old friend, Andy likes to say), Verizon's broadband internet network wouldn't exist if the internet consumer didn't want the content provided by people like Google, Microsoft, and the ever present internet porn industry. If the content didn't exist there would be no users to buy their bandwidth and Verizon wouldn't exist at all... Everybody on the same page now? Lets not bite the hands that feed us anymore, huh?