SBC Digs Hole Deeper

Following up on my post a few days ago on how Ed Whitacre wants the end of the Internet, it is interesting to note that SBC press folks are now trying to squelch the flames lit by Ed. According to the VoIP and Enum blog:

SBC spokesman Michael Balmoris said Whitacre was not talking about charging companies for letting customers access their Web sites. Rather, he said, Whitacre was referring to access Internet companies may want to the "managed and secure" portions of the fiber-optic network SBC is building largely to deliver video to customer homes.

Read the rest of what Balmoris had to say over at VoIP and Enum. That blog post also offers a link to Kevin Werbach who adds:

Ahh, so broadband over fiber isn't going to be "the Internet." It's going to be a private, tolled garden controlled by the phone companies.

This all points back to a nasty littly technology called IMS that the phone companies are rather excited about. The new fiber network that SBC is rolling out will come complete with "gateway media controllers" which will allow the network to determine which applications and which content receive priority, and indeed are even allowed, to run over the network. If consumers allow the network monopolists to insert network controls over our applications and content, they network operators will try to turn the Internet into Television. Remember the Information Superhighway? Control from the top.